The Supreme Court Monday commenced a 10-day nation-wide exercise to collect data on sexual assault on children for effective and expeditious prosecution of offenders.
The apex court on July 12 had, on its own, taken note of the”alarming rise” in the number of rape incidents against children andsaid it will pass directions to ensure a “concerted” and”clear” national response.
A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi Mondaydeliberated upon the steps likely to be taken to deal with the issue and soughtextensive report on the number of pending cases under the Protection ofChildren from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, in each district.
The bench, which had appointed senior advocate V Giri asamicus curiae (friend of the court to assist it in the matter), Monday askedhim to work with apex court registrar S S Rathi and get details of the casesand give suggestions.
“We request Giri to proceed with the exercise, tofacilitate which, we direct Surinder S Rathi, Registrar of this court to workin association with Giri’s office and get the required information which wouldbe in the context of the total number of POCSO cases pending in each districtof the country.
“The period for which the POCSO cases remained pendingmay also be collected separately. This exercise shall commence from today andbe completed within ten days,” it said and fixed the case fordeliberations on July 25.
During the brief hearing, Giri referred to the provisions ofthe POCSO Act and submitted that they needed to be strictly implemented at allstages, commencing from the stage of investigation and the different facets ofthe trial.
He also stressed on the need of sensitization of specialjudges and prosecutors who would be dealing with the cases.
He said it would be convenient for him to to make hissuggestions in writing with regard to the guidelines that may be issued by thecourt once he is able to collate all the relevant facts which would requirecoordination of the Registries of the various High Courts.
While he was making submissions, the bench said that it hastaken the suo-motu cognizance of various reports of news papers and portals onrising incidents of child rape from January to June 30, this year.It had asked the Registry to collect detailsfrom all the states and high courts.