Chennai: Urging the need to keep pace with the developments in science and technology, Madras High Court has directed the state government to discontinue the practice of collecting sperm for conducting potency tests in cases involving sexual offences and come up with a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to hold the same with blood samples.
A Division Bench comprising justices Anand Venkatesh and SS Sundar constituted to monitor the implementation of the POCSO Act and the Juvenile Justice Act, made it clear that the 'Two Finger Test' as well as the 'Potency Test' by collecting sperm should be discontinued. The Bench termed the latter as archaic and a thing of the past. Advanced techniques are followed across the world to determine potency by merely collecting blood samples, which have to be followed, it was pointed out.
“... the Potency Test that is done in cases involving sexual offence carries a mechanism of collecting sperm from the offender and this is a method of the past. Science has improved metes and bounds and it is possible to conduct this test by just collecting the blood sample. Such advanced techniques are being followed across the world and we should also fall in line. Hence, there will be a direction to the respondents to come up with a standard operating procedure for conducting Potency Test by merely collecting the blood sample,” reads the judgment.
The Bench directed the DGP to instruct the Inspector Generals of Police of various zones to collect data from the medical reports in all sexual offence cases from January this year and bring to the court's attention if two finger test have been carried out. On receipt of the same, appropriate orders would be passed, the Judges said.
A report submitted by the DGP on the status of cases involving victims and children in conflict with law between 2010 and 2013 said that of the total 1728 cases, 1274 are pending at various stages. After a perusal of the report, the Bench directed the police to identify those cases involving consensual relationships from among the 1274 pending cases. A brief note on the facts of the cases along with the 164 statements recorded from the victim should be attached.
During the hearing, the police filed a status report on the case involving two minors who eloped and got married with the girl getting pregnant later. The girl was put up at a home by the Block Development Officer (BDO) despite her parent's plea to send her with them. Further, an FIR was filed against the boy on a complaint by the BDO and the Juvenile Justice Board ordered him to be kept at a Place of Safety (PoS). This clearly showed that the instructions of the POCSO panel and the circulars of the DGP have not percolated down, the court bemoaned.
Expressing concern over the lack of sensitivity, empathy in some cases, the Bench said there is an urgent need for sensitisation for the Child Welfare Commission and the Juvenile Justice Board.
“A victim girl is mechanically detained in a home when it is not warranted and when such a victim girl can be sent along with her parents. Similarly, the child in conflict with law is sent to the Juvenile Home or the POS, as the case may be, mechanically and they are detained when it is not warranted and the child in conflict with law can be sent along with the parents by collecting a bond from the parents and imposing necessary conditions to ensure future appearance. The Social Welfare Officers and the Police seem to be acting as per the directions of CWC and JJB without any independent say. Hence, the CWC and JJB must be sensitised. The sensitisation programmes must be conducted by the Legal Services Authority and the State Judicial Academy,” the Bench said.
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