The Supreme Court has directed the Central government to set up special POCSO courts in every district that has over 100 pending cases under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
A Bench of Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi with Justices Deepak Gupta and Aniruddha Bose directed that these courts be set up within a period of 60 days to exclusively hear POCSO cases.
Further, these Special Courts have to be set up under a Central scheme, funded by the Centre. The Court directed Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to submit a progress report on the same within four weeks. The case has been posted to be taken up next on September 26.
The Court was hearing a suo motu case concerning the rise in the number of child rape cases. The Amicus Curiae in the case, Senior Counsel V Giri submitted a report that touched upon various issues, including lack of proper judicial infrastructure for the trial of POCSO cases, the need for qualified support persons, problems leading to slow winding up of investigation and insufficient POCSO Courts.
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