Supreme Court directs Centre, States to set up special POCSO courts on priority basis

The top court further directed filing of chargesheets within the mandatory period stipulated in law besides completing trials within the prescribed time frame.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the Centre and States to set up dedicated special courts on "top priority basis" to try sexual assault cases against children under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act to ensure strict adherence to the timelines under the law.

A bench of Justices Bela M Trivedi and Prasanna B Varale found majority of the States with the funding from the central government complied with the directions issued by the court for setting up exclusive courts for POCSO cases.

However, in certain states like Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Odisha, Maharashtra, etc. there is still a need to create more POCSO courts considering the pendency of the POCSO cases, the bench said.

"In our opinion, since the timelines have been stipulated under the POCSO Act for all stages right from the stage of investigation up to the stage of trial, the same must be adhered to as far as possible. Because of the inadequacy of the number of exclusive courts for the POCSO cases, the said timelines mandated in the Act for completion of the trials are not being maintained," the bench said.

In its 8-page judgment, Justice Trivedi for the bench said, it was therefore expected that the Union and the state governments would take appropriate steps to sensitise the officials associated with the investigation of POCSO cases, and also to create dedicated courts to try POCSO cases on top priority basis.

The court also asked the officials to ensure that the chargesheets are filed, and the trials are completed within the time frame as contemplated in the Act.

The court closed the suo proceedings initiated in 2019 after registering 'In Re: Alarming Rise in the number of Reported Child Rape Incidents' following various news reports with regard to the increase of child rape cases in the country.

It had then directed in each district of the country, if there are more than 100 cases under the POCSO Act, an exclusive or designated special court would be set up, which would try no other offence except those under the POCSO Act.

The court had previously asked senior advocates V Giri and Uttara Babbar, who appeared as amici curiae, submit state-wise details of POCSO courts. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta represented the Union government in the matter.

Earlier, the court, after noticing that there were a large number of POCSO cases pending throughout the country, had laid down the parameters to be followed and gave directions for setting up exclusive POCSO courts in each state.

The court had laid down separate criteria for the states of Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal where the pendency of POCSO cases was extremely high, by its order on December 16, 2019.