New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the Centre on a PIL to fund exclusive special POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act) courts in all districts with at least 100 pending cases.
The directive came just a day after the Rajya Sabha unanimously passed a Bill to amend the Act, making laws more stringent for those committing the sexual crimes against children. The Bill will now go to the Lok Sabha for its approval.
A bench of Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Deepak Gupta and Aniruddha Bose passed the order after going through a report presented by amicus curiae (court’s friend) V Giri, a senior advocate appointed by it for assistance.
The CJI took cognizance of the reports tabulated by the registry from the information from the High Court that there were only 670 POCSO courts to deal with 1.5 lakh pending cases as against the need for a triple number of such courts.
The Court directive comes on the heels of the amendments in the Act to provide for death penalty for aggravated sexual crimes against children and measures to deter circulation of child pornography.
The bench said the Centre would have to appoint trained, sensitised prosecutors and support persons to deal with the POCSO cases and the chief secretaries of states and union territories will ensure timely submission of forensic reports in such cases.
It asked the Centre to apprise it about the status of compliance of the order in 30 days and to make the money available for setting up of POCSO courts and appointment of prosecutors and others.
The top court noted that collection of further nationwide data on child rape cases would delay implementation of the POCSO law.
It said the suggestion of amicus curiae V Giri to set up a forensic lab in each district for expeditious disposal of POCSO cases can wait, and added that in the meantime, the state governments can ensure timely submission of such reports for expeditious conclusion of trial. The court has put up the matter for further hearing on September 26.
