As the pendency of cases filed under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act continues to bother activists, nearly one year after the government announced that special courts would be set up in four districts to handle these cases exclusively, they have not come up yet. In Theni, sources said, construction of the court is under way.
Pursuant to a Supreme Court order, on a suo motu writ petition from 2019, to constitute an exclusive/designated special court in districts where there are more than 100 cases under the Act, the State government passed an order in February 2021 to set up a special court each in Dindigul, Dharmapuri, Theni and Tiruvallur districts to handle the high volume of cases, even sanctioning funds to establish them.
“The reason for the order to constitute special courts was the high pendency in these districts. However, delays [in establishing these courts] will only increase the pendency. If you do not have the infrastructure necessary to handle the cases, it is clear that pendency will continue to increase,” says Vidya Reddy of Tulir-Centre for Prevention and Healing of Child Sexual Abuse. A total of 14,380 POCSO Act cases were filed as on February 26, 2022, and 7,193 of them were disposed of, and the rest were pending.
