NEW DELHI: In as many as 90 cases registered under Protection of Children Against Sexual Offences Act over five years across district courts in Kerala, the reason for acquittal lay in the fact that the accused married the survivor and the latter testified to the same. At least three of these survivors who married the accused were just 15- years- old at the time of occurrence of the offence and three others were even younger. In around 68 cases, the survivor was in the age group of 16-17 years at the time of the occurrence of the offence.At a consultation organised by voluntary organisation "Independent Thought" in the capital on combating child marriage and associated challenges under various laws, advocate Soumya Bhaumik presented the Kerala data as a case study based on a scrutiny of district court judgments."It has come out that one of the major reason for acquittal has been due to the fact that accused person has married the victim girl after the registration of the offence. Half of the victim girls were of the age group of 17 years. Figures also show that those who were below 15 at the time of offence have also married the accused. This projects a worrisome scenario as it is possible that they may have married as minors and that is a violation of the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act 2006," Bhaumik pointed. "The other concern is that after the registration of crime there is considerable delay in the commencement of trial, and it is in this intervening period that marriages have happened (alleged accused have been released on bail)," he added.Sharing case studies, Bhaumik pointed that "It is recorded in one of the judgment that accused married the victim girl after she attained majority and they have children also. In another case, accused who happened to be victim girl's stepbrother is now husband of the survivor." He added that all these cases show there is need to carry out follow-up on these cases to establish the couples are leading a happy married life or there are cases where the accused person who married the survivor has abandoned her.Another study on the implementation of Pocso in Delhi and Mumbai, steered by HAQ: Centre for Child Rights and the Forum Against Sexual Exploitation of Children (FACSE), shows that many acquittals in Pocso cases have happened as the accused and survivor were established to be in a "romantic relationship." This data brings back focus on the larger issue of review of the age of consent debate in the context of Pocso as far as consensual sex between minors is concerned.Based on data collected for the period 2012-15, it came through that out of 386 cases disposed of in Delhi and Mumbai, 92 cases (24%) ended in conviction. More than three-fourths of the disposed cases in Delhi - 286 cases (78%), were acquitals. Most acquittals in Delhi were in cases relating to children aged 16 to 18 years (72 out of 231), whereas in Mumbai, it was in cases of children aged 13 to 15 years (4 out of 8). Maximum acquittals where the accused/offender was 'known' to the child are cases of romantic relationship (39%), followed by cases where the accused/offender is a neighbour (25%), and cases where the accused/offender is a relative (19%).