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Lack of special courts under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act: A
structural deficit

Article  in  Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care · October 2017

DOI: 10.4103/jfmpc.jfmpc_241_17

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Deepak Juyal Adarsh Kumar

Government Doon Medical College All India Institute of Medical Sciences
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Veer Chandra Singh Garhwali Government Medical Science and Research Institute All India Institute of Medical Sciences
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Letter to Editor
Lack of special courts
under Protection of
Children from Sexual
Offences Act: A structural
deficit
Dear editor,
The child sexual abuse  (CSA), an under‑reported offence in
india, is among the serious problems plaguing our society and
has reached epidemic proportions.[1‑3] A study conducted by the
Government of India to estimate the burden of CSA revealed
shocking results and reported that every 2nd child in the country
was sexually abused at some point of time.[4] Children who are
victims of sexual abuse often know the perpetrator in some way.[3]
Hence, the problem of CSA needs to be addressed through less
ambiguous and more stringent punishment.
The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) act
2012[5] was formulated to effectively address the heinous crimes
of CSA and sexual exploitation of children, which came into
force on children’s day itself, i.e., November 14, 2012. However,
even after 5 years of its inception, this act has faced unforeseen
challenges in its complete implementation, the chief being failure
to set up special POCSO courts in all the districts of the country.
Setting up of these courts was an essential mandate of the
POSCO act, the lack of which has resulted in considerable delay
in the disposal and pendency of the cases registered under the act.
As per section 28 (1) of the POCSO act, the state governments,
in consultation with the Chief Justice of High Court, should
designate a Sessions Court as a special court to try offences under
the POCSO act to facilitate speedy trial.[5] However, as per section
28 (2), if a sessions court had been already notified as a children’s
court under the Commissions for Protection of Child Rights act or
if any other special court has been designated for similar purposes
under any other law, it could also be considered as a special court
under the POCSO act.[5] Unlike other enactments, the importance
of this “special statute” lies in the “special courts” for trying
offences under the POCSO act. Despite the statutory stipulation
that every district should have an exclusive POCSO court, the
directives have been continuously ignored. The apathetic attitude
of the state government’s bureaucracy is reflected by the fact that
until and unless the Supreme Court does not intervene, neither
do they formulate any manual related to a law, nor do they fulfill
other formalities for its implementation. The POSCO act has faced
the same fate, and even after 3 years of its implementation, it was
only after the intervention of the Supreme Court that the special
© 2018 Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care | Published by Wolters Kluwer - Medknow 881
courts for women and the Juvenile Justice Boards were given the
status of Special POCSO courts in various districts.[6]
To make matters worse, the judges appointed in such special
courts are not subject experts as neither are they provided
additional training by the state government nor do they seriously
study the law pertaining to such cases. As a consequence, they
consider such cases as an additional burden, and hence, cases
of CSA are not dealt effectively and efficiently as envisaged
under the provisions of POCSO act 2012.[6] This is reflected by
a judgment passed by a special court (actually a sessions court)
in Thane, Maharashtra, on the 22nd of December 2016 where
the court issued a perjury notice to a 16‑year‑old minor girl in a
case registered under POCSO act.[7] The girl had allegedly been
subjected to rape by her father. Although she testified against her
father in the examination‑in‑chief, she turned hostile during the
final stages of the cross‑examination conducted by the defense
counsel. The trial strategy on part of the defense was similar to
the rape trials involving adult women victims, where attempts
are made to devalue the credibility of the victim by questioning
her sexual history and moral character. This step belies the spirit
and objectives of POCSO act, which stipulates child‑friendly
atmosphere through all stages of the judicial process and given
paramount importance to the principle of “best interest of the
child.”[5] more importantly section 22  (2) of the act excludes
children from being punished for providing false information,
and as per the act, a child is defined to be any person below the
age of 18 years.[5] In an erroneous move, in this case, the special
court relied on the POCSO bill, which had allowed a child above
16 years filing a false complaint to be sent to the Juvenile Justice
Board for suitable remedial action. However, this clause was
deleted when the bill was passed by the Rajya Sabha and is not
part of the current law. Unfortunately, in this case, on account of
the ignorance of the judge, a judgment was passed in compliance
to the POCSO bill and led to this erroneous decision. There is an
urgent need to educate the medical, judicial, and law‑enforcing
agencies about the POCSO act 2012. Awareness and training
of all the stakeholders is one of the important variables in
providing comprehensive care and justice to children, the future
of our country.
CSA is a scourge of Indian society, and hence, the POCSO act
was introduced in 2012. However, no law can be implemented
effectively and efficiently, without the dedicated and coordinated
efforts of the implementing agencies. A  multidimensional
approach is required in this regard, and the onus lies with the state
governments, police department, judicial system, and medical
fraternity to implement the act in letter and spirit and to respond
to these cases with urgency, empathy, and compassion. Speedy
trials are possible if the judges, their staff, prosecution, police,
and defense coordinate with each other, failing which concept
of special courts will be defeated. Similarly, doctors also need
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Letter to editor
to be trained to understand the intricacies and help in proper
scientific collection of various evidences while examining the
child victim of sexual abuse.
Financial support and sponsorship
Nil.
Conflicts of interest
There are no conflicts of interest.
Deepak Juyal1, Ajay Setia2,
Ashutosh Sayana3, Adarsh Kumar4,
Vyas Kumar Rathaur5, Benu Dhawan6
Departments of 1Microbiology, 3Surgery and 5Pediatrics,
Government Doon Medical College, Dehradun, Uttarakhand,
2
State Commission for Protection of Child Rights,
Departments of 4Forensic Medicine and Toxicology and
6
Microbiology, AIIMS, New Delhi, India
Address for correspondence: Mr. Deepak Juyal,
Department of Microbiology, Government Doon Medical College,
Dehrakhas, Patel Nagar, Dehradun ‑ 248 001,
Uttarakhand, India.
E‑mail: deepakk787@gmail.com
References
1. Dhawan J, Gupta S, Kumar B. Sexually transmitted diseases
in children in india. Indian J Dermatol Venereol Leprol
2010;76:489‑93.
2. Krishnakumar P, Satheesan K, Geeta MG, Sureshkumar K.
Prevalence and spectrum of sexual abuse among adolescents
in kerala, south india. Indian J Pediatr 2014;81:770‑4.
3. Karthiga RK, Ravikumar R. Child sexual abuse in madurai,
Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care 882 Volume 6 : Issue 4 : October-December 2017
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India: A literary review and empirical study. J Child Sex
Abus 2014;23:727‑44.
4. Ministry of Women and Child Development. Study on Child
Abuse India. Government of india; 2007. Available from:
http://www.wcd.nic.in/childabuse.pdf. [Last accessed on
2017 May 26].
5. The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act;
2012. Available from: http://www.wcd.nic.in/childact/
childprotection31072012.pdf. [Last accessed on 2017 May 24].
6. Available from: http://www.indiagatenews.com/
there‑should‑not‑bail‑in‑pocso‑case. [Last accessed on
2017 May 14].
7. Available from: http://www.hindustantimes.com/cities/
thane-court-pulls-up-minor-girl-for-falsely-accusing-
father-of-rape/story-RfVbf3M3ekTAEWSSeIJaHK.html.
[Last accessed on 2017 May 30].
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DOI:
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How to cite this article: Juyal D, Setia A, Sayana A, Kumar A,
Rathaur VK, Dhawan B. Lack of special courts under protection of
children from sexual offences act: A structural deficit. J Family Med Prim
Care 2017;6:881-2.
© 2018 Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care | Published by Wolters Kluwer -
Medknow