Several committees are already in place for examining acquittals of the accused in child sexual abuse cases, the Delhi Police informed the Delhi High Court on Monday.
Police, in its report to a bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice V K Rao, mentioned the issue of filing appeals against acquittals by trial court and said a proper procedure is already in existence to ensure timely filing of the appeal.
The response of the police came on an application, filed in a pending petition of NGO Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA), which highlighted the backlog of cases and other issues in the effective implementation of the Prevention of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
The application, filed through advocates Shilpa Dewan and Anand Kumar, sought direction to the AAP government to constitute a panel to review the child sexual abuse cases where the accused have been acquitted so as to file appeals.
The police, in its response, said a standing committee comprising senior standing counsel (criminal) as chairman and special commissioner of police, additional commissioner of police (anti corruption), additional standing counsel, director of prosecution (GNCT of Delhi), chief prosecutor of directorate of prosecution as members, is already functioning in Delhi in compliance of a 2014 judgement of the Supreme Court.
It said the committee meets on a monthly basis to examine all orders of acquittal in criminal cases and to ascertain the omissions on the part of investigating officers or prosecutors responsible for acquittal of accused.
The panel records the reasons for the failure of each prosecution case and mistakes committed during the probe and based on the deliberations, action is taken against the erring officials, the police said in its response.
It added the Police Commissioner has also constituted a committee consisting of senior officers and the meetings are convened on bi-monthly basis. The committee monitors the progress of investigation of all cases registered under the POCSO Act and ensures production of witnesses in the court during the trial, it said.
The court listed the matter for further hearing on December 7. The NGO’s application has cited the response of the Minister of Home Affairs in Parliament to a question on August 1, 2017 in which it was mentioned that 5,796 cases were registered under POCSO Act in 2014-16.