The Delhi High Court has granted bail to a young man accused of raping a girl with whom he was having a "love affair", while taking note of the "misapplication" of law in cases involving boys who are in love with girls on the cusp of adulthood.

The court said this resulted in young boys languishing in jails on account of cases filed at the behest of girls’ families objecting to their romantic relationship.

Justice Subramonium Prasad made the observations while dealing with a case in which the victim was 16 years old at the relevant time and the petitioner accused, an adult, was facing allegations of kidnapping and raping the girl.

The high court said consensual sex between girls who are just below the age of 18 years and boys who are just above 20 years is in a "legal grey area" because the consent given by a minor girl is not a valid consent in the eyes of law.

“This court has been constantly seeing that Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) cases are being filed at the behest of the girl’s family who object to her friendship and romantic involvement with a young boy and the law is being misapplied in such cases which results in young boys, who have genuinely fallen in love with young adolescent girls, languishing in jails,” the judge said.

The court said it was not going into the question as to whether the petitioner has committed these offences or not and was only concerned with whether a youngster who was in jail for about three years now should be granted bail or not in view of the fact that all public witnesses, including the prosecutrix, have been examined.

In this case, the girl's father had lodged a missing person complaint in November 2021 about his daughter who was subsequently found to be living with the petitioner.

The FIR was lodged for offences of kidnapping, aggravated penetrative sexual assault as well as rape under the Indian Penal Code and the POCSO Act.

The statements given by the girl to the doctors who examined her and to a magistrate showed that she went with the youth of her own accord and that he had not forced himself on her, the court noted.

It noted that the petitioner has been in custody since November 19, 2021 and opined that if he continues to be in jail, the chances of him coming out as a hardened criminal are very high.

“The future of a youngster cannot be ignored by this court at this juncture,” it said, adding that no useful purpose would be served in keeping him in further custody.

The court granted bail to the petitioner on furnishing a security bond of Rs 50,000 with two sureties of the like amount and imposed certain conditions on him.

Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Telegraph Online staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.