Act suo motu on prosecutors’ appointments under POSCO, SC tells HCs

New Delhi, April 7 (IANS) The Supreme Court on Friday directed Chief Justices of 11 High Courts to act suo motu for the appointment of independent public prosecutors in special courts hearing cases of sexual abuse of children under the POCSO Act.

A bench of Chief Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar, Justice D.Y. Chandrachud and Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul gave the directions on a petition by lawyer Gaurav Kumar Bansal who sought appointment of such public prosecutors and conversion of special courts under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012, as "exclusive courts" to try these cases.

The states where Bansal sought the appointment of independent public prosecutors are Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Mizoram, Nagaland, Meghalaya and the Union Territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Informing the court that these states had failed to appoint independent public prosecutors as mandated under Section 32 of the Act, Bansal said Gujarat, Goa, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, and Union Territories of Puducherry and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands are in breach of Section 28 of the POCSO Act for setting up the special courts.

Section 28 of the act says there will be at least one special court in each district.

Referring to the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, Bansal told the apex court that there were 604 special courts in 675 districts, thereby leaving 71 districts with no special courts.

He said in the absence of special courts, the objective of the law for speedy trial of offenders cannot be achieved.

Citing National Crime Record Bureau statistics, the petitioner said absence of such courts and independent public prosecutors was hampering prosecution in POCSO cases and leading to backlog of cases as also those investigated by the police.

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