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Fast-track trials to be held for child sexual abuse cases, says SC

The Supreme Court today issued a slew of measures to monitor and fast-track trials across the country in sexual abuse cases involving children under stringent POCSO Act, including a direction to all High Courts to set up a panel of three judges to look into such cases.

The Supreme Court, which had ordered a review of the backlog under POCSO, found that States such as Uttar Pradesh have over 30,000 cases pending despite the child protection law coming into existence as early as 2012.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra considered a report produced by lawyer Alakh Alok Srivastava and said that 30,884, 16,099 and 10,117 cases under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, were pending at different stages of trial in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh respectively.

The top court also directed the Director General of Police (DGPs) or police officer of the same rank of all states and UTs to ensure that probes in POCSO cases were conducted expeditiously and the witnesses produced in the courts for the recording of testimonies were protected. It also asked the High Courts to ensure that the proceedings in such cases were conducted in “child-friendly” atmosphere in the trial courts.

Though the government was initially against the death penalty in child rape cases, saying “death penalty is not an answer for everything,” the rape of an eight-year-old in Kathua proved to be the last straw and the government recently promulgated an ordinance allowing courts to pronounce death penalty to those found guilty of raping children up to 12 years of age.

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