What is the role of Consent in Criminal Law?
Consent plays a very important role in criminal law. Its presence or absence makes all the difference between innocence and crime. For example, if you have s*xual intercourse with a girl of over 16 years, who gives her consent, there is no offence. But if the act is done without her consent, it would be rape. However it may be noted that consent is irrelevant when a person has s*xual intercourse with a female under the age of 16 and such act amounts to rape even though her consent is given. It further makes no difference if the male was under a genuine mistake about the age of the female who gave her consent. Consent is defined in S. 90 of IPC.
