BENGALURU: The mandate of Section 34(2) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act is that the trial of the cases under this Act should be concluded by the special court within one year from the date of taking cognisance. However, it shocks the conscience of the court to see that a case under the Act has been pending for the past 12 years. Nothing can be more appalling than a case concerning the rape of a minor child, pending in the court for 12 long years, said the Karnataka High Court on Monday.
Justice M Nagaprasanna made thes observations while asking the special court to conclude the proceedings within eight weeks against a school employee accused of sexual assault on the six-year-old daughter of the petitioner on the premises of the institution where she was studying in 2014.
While disposing of the petition filed by the father of the victim seeking speedy disposal of the case, the High Court slammed the culture of repeated and indiscriminate adjournments before the special court. It said the case at hand is not one involving an ordinary offence. “It concerns the alleged rape of a child, barely 6 years of age.
Every adjournment granted without compelling justification has not merely postponed a hearing; it has prolonged the trauma of a child who entered the criminal justice system as a victim and has remained captive to it for over 10 years. Justice delayed, in cases of this nature, does not remain a mere procedural lapse – it assumes the character of a continuing injustice,” the court noted.
“A child who has suffered the sexual abuse cannot be compelled to relive the trauma endlessly, because the criminal justice system has surrendered to the culture of adjournments. Every unnecessary adjournment compounds the original injury and converts the process itself into an instrument of oppression,” the court observed.
The petitioner also questioned an order of the special court dated February 20, 2024 through which it declined to summon the magistrate for examining the veracity of the statement made by the victim under Section 164 of the CrPC, pursuant to the crime registered on July 14, 2014 under Section 376 of IPC and Section 4 and 6 of the Pocso Act.
However, the court said that the Magistrate who recorded the statement should not be summoned to mark such statements and should only be summoned when the witness disputes or denies having made such a statement.
The special court took cognisance of the offences and the matter in 2014, but the proceedings during the trial have taken 10 years to reach this stage. The coordinate Bench of the High Court granted an interim order of stay of further proceedings before the special court on March 7, 2024.