"Control sexual urge as in the eyes of the society a girl is the looser when she gives in to pleasure of two minutes”, observes Calcutta High Court

Calcutta High Court issued a list of guidelines for teenaged boys and girls, encouraging them to control their sexual urges while also respecting the dignity and bodily autonomy of the other gender, after hearing a teenager's challenge against his conviction in a rape case. A sessions court gave the adolescent a 20-year prison term last year for indulging in sexual intercourse with a minor.

During the hearing, the girl revealed to the court that she was in a relationship of her own volition and had later married him. She claimed that the age of consent for sex in India is 18 and that their relationship was illegal. The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) states that consent granted by a person under the age of 18 is not considered to be legitimate and that engaging in sexual activity with them constitutes rape.

Justices Chitta Ranjan Dash and Partha Sarathi Sen, sitting as a two-judge panel, overturned the sessions court's decision and asked for comprehensive sex education in schools to prevent the legal ramifications of sexual activity at an early age.

"Control sexual urge/urges as in the eyes of the society she is the looser when she gives in to enjoy the sexual pleasure of hardly two minutes," the court ruled, urging girls to resist their sexual desires and not succumb to two minutes of pleasure.

The Calcutta HC stated that boys must respect a girl's dignity and train their brains to respect women. "It is the duty of a male adolescent to respect the aforesaid duties of a young girl or woman, and he should train his mind to respect a woman, her self-worth, her dignity and privacy, and the right to autonomy of her body," the judge stated.Young girls must defend their "right to the integrity of her body, dignity, and self-worth," the bench added.