The Madras High Court has issued fresh directions to speed up the pendency of rape and POCSO cases, citing Tamil Nadu Police data that shows that majority of pending cases have lapsed the statutory time frame mentioned under the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS).
Rape cases are pending in court in Tamil Nadu for more than two months in each case of a total of 1916 cases or about 76.7% of all pending rape cases have already crossed the required two months mark, as per the report submitted before a bench headed by Chief Justice SA Dharmadhikari and Justice G under Section 346(1) of the BNSS.
The report also found that over 50 per cent of the pending cases under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act are over its one-year timeframe limit.
The Hon’ble High Court in this respect expressed its dismay and directed all the Principal District Courts, Sessions Courts, Additional Sessions Courts, Women Courts and other special courts before it dealing with sexual offence cases to all out do their best to abide by the proper time limits prescribed by the law. The court also advised judges that “exceptional circumstances” must exist to grant adjournments and explained its reasons for doing so in writing.
The High Court also asked the Registrar General to circulate a reminder in four weeks about the time limits in CPRI (Section 28 and 29) and urged to POCSO courts not to lose the intent of the legislation by allowing delayed recordings of evidence before a child.
Further, the court directed the government of Tamil Nadu to recruit officials in the four POCSO courts and speed-up the recruitment of six sanctioned special courts and also regular judicial training of judges relating to POCSO cases.
The Director General of Police has also been issued instructions to periodically review measures to prevent abuse of power during night patrolling once every year.