New Delhi: The Supreme Court will examine if teenagers, who are engaged in consensual physical relationships but which later turn “sour”, can be prosecuted under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO), The Hindu has reported.The apex court bench led by Justice Indira Banerjee admitted a case where a Tamil Nadu man is accused of rape when he was 18 while the girl in question was aged 17 when the alleged crime took place. Both were in a ‘relationship’ when they were schoolmates. However, when the accused refused to marry the girl, a police complaint was filed against him in 2015, accusing him of rape.After hearing both sides, a trial court in Tamil Nadu had found the man guilty and sentenced him to 10 years in prison under the POCSO Act in 2019. The accused was pronounced guilty even after the girl during the hearing at the trial court changed her stance and admitted that they were in a consensual relationship.The man’s counsel, Rahul Shyam Bhandari, moved the Madras high court after the girl had changed her stance, but it did not admit the case. Compelled, the petitioner approached the top court of the land.Bhandari, on behalf of the petitioner, told the Supreme Court that both were under 18 years of age and were in a relationship, but now they want to settle in life as they have attained the legally approved marriageable age.The petitioner has sought the apex court to clarify if POCSO can be employed against minors for acts of consensual sex. It has stated that the objective of the Act is not to punish adolescents who are in a physical or a live-in relationship.On the other hand, the apex court has issued a notice to the Tamil Nadu government and ordered the state police not to take any coercive action against the appellant.