Hyderabad: It is heart wrenching to see the grief of victims pleading for fast justice when contemporary descendants of King Kuru are assaulting them. In the dismal times when abuses against children and women are on the rise, even amendments to POCSO act did not bring about any change.
The perpetrators are exploiting the loopholes in implementation of various acts and laws. The Supreme Court of India has realized that the cases filed under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) act, 2012 are pending for years together and ordered for quicker investigation into those cases.
The Modi government has announced during the first week of August that 1,023 fast track courts will be set up to investigate cases filed under POCSO act. The Central Government aims to resolve more than 1,66,000 pending cases filed under women and child sexual assault, by assigning each court a target of 165 cases per year.
According to the instructions, 389 districts in which more than 100 sexual offence cases were filed are given higher priority. In the remaining 634 districts, both sexual assault and child abuse cases will be investigated.
The government has specified that the process of establishment of fast track courts will begin on Mahatma Gandhi Jayanti and a budget of Rs.767 crores has been allocated for the same. Instead of limiting the budget to Rs.75 lakhs for each court, the government must focus on delivering justice to victims.
Victims of sexual assault endure a lifetime of suffering. The comment by Bombay High Court that rape is a more serious offence than murder is gospel truth.
The victims are tormented from the time of filing FIR to the time of final judgement. A total of 3,00,00,000 cases are pending in Indian courts which shows the lethargy of judiciary, indirectly giving freehand to perpetrators.
The 11th Financial Commission has proposed 1,734 fast track courts in 2000, to resolve pending cases in sessions courts. The State Governments have established these courts after consulting High Courts.
Till 2011, there were 6,56,000 pending cases in these fast track courts alone. Although the 14th Financial Commission granted Rs.4,144 crores towards establishment of 1,800 special courts, only 699 have been established till January 2019 as individual states have refused to share the expenditure on 60:40 ratio.
It has been reported in the Parliament that 4,25,000 cases are pending in Uttar Pradesh which has 206 courts. The government and judiciary must swiftly work towards resolving new cases besides clearing up pending ones.
The Law Commission, in 2003 and 2008 had proposed setting up special courts for business cases and specially appointed quick track courts.
None of the states which registered high incidents of sexual assault have a fast track court. Delhi, which is notorious as Rape Capital, has only 14 courts against the proposed 63 courts.
The Centre has recommended setting up 16 more courts in New Delhi, 18 in Andhra Pradesh and 36 in Telangana.
There is huge responsibility on the governments to ensure that the punishment is meted out to criminals. The authorities at various levels must be made answerable and responsible towards speeding up investigations in order to console the justice seekers.
Technical assistance must be provided to the fast track courts to improve their efficiency. Pornography sites must be banned along with instilling a sense of fear among malefactors.
Sex education and abuse awareness must start from the school level itself to reduce the incidence of further crimes.
Read: Sexual crime against girl children rises to alarming levels
