Age of consent:

Govt will not proceed with amendment
 

BY Uditha Kumarasinghe and Rajmi Manatunga

THE Government has decided not to proceed with the proposed amendment to Section 363 of the Penal Code on statutory rape.

Justice Minister W.D.J. Seneviratne told the weekly Cabinet briefing yesterday that the decision was made owing to concerns raised by the public based on the misconception that the amendment seeks to lower the age for consensual sex from 16 to 13.

"We never intended to lower the age of consent to 13. The objective of the proposed amendment was to confer discretion on the Attorney General to decide whether a young boy who had sexual relations with a girl between the age of 13 to 16 with her consent should be charged with statutory rape or not," he said.

The Minister said the amendment was necessitated by the fact that so many young people are charged with statutory rape when they have had sexual relations with girls between 13 and 16 with consent.

"In such circumstances, criminalising the act of the boy alone is unjust and unreasonable. Therefore, in most cases like this the two young persons involved produce a marriage certificate to the court to save the boy from being charged with statutory rape," Seneviratne said.

"Although these certificates are obtained by falsely stating that they are above 18 (the lawful age for marriage) the judges are compelled to accept them," he said.

The Minister said the amendment was proposed following concerns expressed by judicial officers and the police who pointed out the harshness of prosecuting such young people for consensual sexual relations.

"However, owing to public concerns I have decided to inform the Cabinet that the amendment should be considered only after extensive public discussions," the Minister added.