Overview
- The Supreme Court scheduled day‑to‑day hearings from November 12 before Justices Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta and N. V. Anjaria to examine challenges to the current consent threshold.
- The bench said it would proceed in continuity rather than piecemeal and signaled that linked matters would be heard together.
- The Centre, through Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, defended keeping consent at 18 as a deliberate child‑protection policy and warned that close‑in‑age exceptions or a lower threshold could dilute POCSO and BNS safeguards and enable trafficking.
- Amicus curiae Indira Jaising urged a read‑down to 16 to avoid criminalising consensual relationships between 16‑ and 18‑year‑olds, citing global practice and National Family Health Survey‑5 data indicating substantial teenage sexual activity.
- The court was told of multiple intervention applications, with several groups opposing any reduction due to fears of misuse and increased child marriages, and the bench said it would decide which filings to entertain.