Priya Gour
Published on: August 29, 2022 at 20:54 IST
The Supreme Court has recently issued notices to States and Union Territories to respond with respect to their implementation of safeguards for child protection laws. The Bench of Justices Indira Banerjee and V. Ramasubramanian directed that the State Governments/UTs be represented through their Standing Counsels.
The court was hearing a plea filed by an NGO, Bachpan Bachao Andolan.
The plea was specifically highlighting a suffering of a 13-year old Dalit minor girl, brutally gang raped last year, in Lalitpur, UP. In her case, the petition claims that the police department was negligent in registering an FIR.
Further, their complaints were restrained, their family was threatened. The minor was kidnapped, for which the police didn’t file a complaint on time, that is, 24 hours.
The NHRC and the Child Welfare Committee took cognisance of the matter and an FIR was filed. However, the POCSO court did not grant interim relief in the mother’s plea and application for special relief under Rule 8 POCSO Act remains pending before the court.
Thus, the plea requested for transferring the case to Delhi, apart from immediate relief to the victim child.
The plea was also filed in general interest. It alleged that non serious implementation of child laws by states had led to higher child crimes. States have not followed the 2013 court orders for Paralegal Volunteers in police stations in addressing child grievances.
All states lacked a uniform method or benchmark for compensation for child victims, especially of sexual assault. The plea relied on a 2019 order of the Supreme Court, which issued directions to the Union Government to consider the Scheme for Compensation, Rehabilitation, Welfare, and Education of POCSO Victims, 2019.
The plea requested the following:
- Directions to be issued to judicial officers to take immediate action on applications filed u/s 156(3) CrPC in POCSO matters;
- Direction to the Central Government and NALSA to notify the scheme for compensation, rehabilitation, welfare, and education of POCSO;
- To State Governments to strictly adhere to the time frame mentioned in the POCSO Act and be responsible for the failure to do so;
- Directions to State Legal Services Authorities to appoint Para Legal Volunteer at each police station.
The next hearing shall be from 1st September, 2022.