Jahanvi Agarwal
Recently the Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court, TS Sivagnanam, requested the judicial officers to be more sensitive towards cases involving human trafficking and other cases that are more stringent on the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO Act).
The Chief Justice emphasized that the majority of POCSO case filed in higher courts majorly focuses on procedural lapse performed by the trial court. Therefore, he pointed out that the judicial officers must ensure that all the procedures are performed properly as instructed.
The Chief Justice was of the opinion that:
“Time and again, the Supreme Court has emphasised that top priority must be given to dispose of POCSO cases. The top court has, through its judgments, laid down how judges dealing with such cases must be imparted with proper training and how sensitivity has to be there.”
The chief justice also shed light on the fact that a committee was recently established under the leadership of Supreme Court judge Justice Ahsanuddin Amanullah. He instructed the committee to develop a training programme for judges in order to guide them on how to handle sensitive matters.
His advice for Trial Court judges was as follows:
“Importance is being given by top court to sensitive cases. Thus, even you (judicial officers) should give top priority to such sensitive and POCSO cases. Also, make use of the vulnerable witnesses’ room because in appeals in POCSO cases, the very first attack is always on the procedural aspect of the trial. Thus, go through the recent judgments of the Supreme Court and High Courts and keep yourself abreast with latest settled law on procedural aspect of a trial.”
During the inauguration ceremony of the new Additional Sessions Court in Baruipur, South 24 Parganas, Chief Justice revealed that a new building is being constructed due to the increasing number of pending cases.
Chief Justice was of the opinion that:
“Statistics show that nearly 2,700 civil cases and over 1,700 sessions cases are pending. The record further revealed that a total of 1,032 cases are arising out of POCSO. Thus, there is a need to bring down the piling backlog and I believe the new infrastructure will help in doing so.”
His main objective was that the judicial officers must make sure that there are no cases pending for more than 20 years.
“Verify the physical files as there are discrepancies in the online statistics. Verify the files on your own at least twice a month and this will help you ascertain the stage at which a case has reached. It will help you bring down the huge number of pending cases.”
He finally concluded by stating that the establishment of new infrastructure would benefit not only the litigants but also advocates as more cases would now be disposed of.