Page 50 - KDU INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE

KDU International Journal of Criminal Justice (KDUIJCJ)
Volume I | Issue II| July 2024

CASTE ME NOT AWAY ! APPLICABILITY OF ROMEO - JULIET
20
EXEMPTION CLAUSE IN RELATION TO STATUTORY RAPE
IN SRI LANKA

A.H. Wijayath
Lecturer (Prob.), Faculty of Criminal Justice

General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University, Ratmalana, Sri Lanka

ABSTRACT

The offence of rape can be defined as sexual intercourse between a man and
a woman against the consent and will of the woman. It has defined under
section 363 of the penal code of Sri Lanka. Under the offence of “statutory
rape,” in the section 363(e ) of the Penal Code of Sri Lanka the victim shall
be under sixteen years of age, and her consent is immaterial. This offence is
introduced to the criminal justice system of Sri Lanka to protect teenagers
against sexual offences. When same-aged teenagers engaging relatively
normal sexual activities under their consent, the male partner may be
subject to long-term punitive penalties. To reduce the harshness of such
punitive terms for male teenagers “Romeo – Juliet” exemption clause ((R
and J Clause) has been introduced to the legal arena. Accordingly, the main
purpose of this article is to analyse whether the “Romeo – Juliet’ exemption
clause has been applied to Sri Lanka by applying a qualitative legal
research method and content analysis design. This research is solely based
on secondary data analysis such as the Penal Code of Sri Lanka, reported
judgements, journal articles and scholarly articles. This work revealed that
the R and J Clause had been applied by the Sri Lankan judges based on the
proviso of section 364 (2) of the Penal Code, but it shows a few grey areas
in the legislation which need to be addressed.

Key Words: Teenage, Romeo Juliet Principle, Statutory rape, Criminal
Law

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