Special Courts for POCSO Cases

A bench headed by the Chief Justice of India has directed the government to set up a special court in all districts of the country where there are over 100 cases of child abuse/sexual assault pending for trail under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.?

Why is it necessary?

• The Chief Justice of India stated that there can be no excuse for the long delay of justice to the children.
• The traumatized victims need to be handled with great care and be treated with a lot of compassion and kindness.
• This requires a new and completely different approach while handling and judging POCSO cases.

What will happen?

• As per the Supreme Court order, the government will have to set up the courts within 60 days.
• These courts will have to established under a special Central Scheme (100% funded by the Centre which includes payment of the presiding officers, staff and support persons in these courts).
• The Supreme Court has also specifically ordered that these new courts be a child-friendly and have an infrastructure that is conducive to those of children.
• The court has also directed the government to recruit special support persons in these dedicated POCSO courts. These people will act as a bridge between the child victim and the court?s officers and investigators and they must be dedicated people who have excellent academic qualifications and be fanatically devoted to child rights.

What is the present status?

A total of 24,212 FIRs were registered on crimes against children in the first 6 months of the year 2019. Of these, trails had commenced in only 6,449 cases and a verdict was delivered in only 911 cases. This represents only 4% of all cases.