NEW DELHI: The mothers of five minor sexual offence victims today moved the Delhi High Court seeking direction to special courts to comply with the provisions of the POCSO Act relating to informing the families about the status of their cases.
A bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar issued notice to the Centre and state government for October 11 seeking their response on the petition filed by the five women whose daughters were victims of sexual abuse.
In the five cases, the victims are aged between 10 to 17 years, and trial are pending before special courts, set up to deal with cases of sexual offence minors.
The plea said as per the provisions of the special law, copy of all documents placed before the court have to be given to the parents or guardians of the minor victims and the court has to ensure that they get them.
It said the petitioners, like other families, were unaware of the basic provisions of the Act and their statutory entitlements and Protection Of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) rules cast the responsibility on the police to keep the victims' parents informed of the developments, including arrest of accused and filing of charge sheet.
The plea, filed through advocate Sridevi Panikkar, alleged that these rules were not being properly followed by the police due to which parents remain uninformed of the court proceedings in the case.
It said even the special courts do not take steps to ensure that documents are supplied to the victim's family.
"This amounts to violation of statutory obligation cast upon special courts by the provisions. Due to delay in getting the documents, victims are unable to assist the court or participate in court proceedings in any meaningful way, frustrating the objectives of the Act," the petition alleged.
It also sought a direction to lay down appropriate guidelines to be followed by special courts for implementation of provisions of POCSO Act.