IN RE ALARMING RISE IN THE NUMBER OF REPORTED CHILD RAPE INCIDENTS vs .

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2020 Supreme(SC) 758

SUPREME COURT OF INDIA
DEEPAK GUPTA, ANIRUDDHA BOSE, JJ.
IN RE ALARMING RISE IN THE NUMBER OF REPORTED CHILD RAPE INCIDENTS - Petitioners
Suo Moto Writ Petition (Crl.No(s). 1/2019
WITH
W.P.(C) No. 819/2019 (PIL-W)
(FOR INTERVENTION APPLICATION ON IA 137755/2019 IA No. 175087/2019 - EXEMPTION FROM FILING O.T.
Decided On : 08-01-2020

Advocates Appeared:
Mr. V. Giri,Sr.Adv.(A.C.), Ms. Uttara Babbar,AOR, Ms. Bhavana Duhoon,Adv., Mr. Manan Bansal,Adv., Mr. Krishna Dev Jagarlamudi,Adv., Mr. Surinder S. Rathi, Registrar(E-Committee), Mr. Rakesh Kumar Singh, Judicial Officer, Mr. Manoj V. George,Adv., Ms. Shilpa Liza George,Adv., Mr. Aakarsh Kamra,AOR, Ms. Akriti,Adv.
Mr. Renjit V. Philip,Adv., Mr. Tushar Mehta,SG
UOI : Mr. Atmaram N.S. Nadkarni,ASG, Mr. S.S. Rebello,Adv., Ms. Suhasini Sen,Adv.
Ms. Neela Kedar Gokhale,Adv., Mr. Rajat Nair,Adv., Ms. Swati Ghildiyal,Adv., Mr. R.R. Rajesh,Adv., Mr. Manish,Adv., Mr. B.V. Balaram Das,AOR, Mr. Raj Bahadur Yadav,AOR, Mr. G.S. Makker,AOR
State of AP : Mr. G.N. Reddy,AOR, Mr. T. Vijaya Bhaskar Reddy,Adv.
State of Arunachal Pradesh : Mr. Abhimanyu Tewari,AOR, Ms. Eliza Bar,Adv.
State of Assam : Ms. Diksha Rai,AOR, Ms. Palak Mahajan,Adv.
State of Bihar : Mr. Abhinav Mukerji,AOR, Ms. Bihu Sharma,Adv., Mr. Samarth Khanna,Adv.
High Court of Patna : Mr. P.H. Parekh,Sr.Adv., Mr. Kshtrashal Raj,Adv., Ms. Tanya Chaudhari,Adv., Ms. Pratyusha Priyadarshini,Adv., Ms. Nitika Pandey,Adv., Mr. Nikhil Ramdev,Adv.
Calcutta High Court : Mr. Kunal Chatterji,AOR, Ms. Maitrayee Banerjee,Adv.
State of Chhattisgarh : Dr. Rajesh Pandey,Adv., Ms. Shweta Mulchandani,Adv., Ms. Tanuja Manjari Patra,Adv., Ms. Aswathi M.K.,AOR, Ms. Monali Jha,Adv., Mr. Sumeer Sodhi,AOR, Ms. Aarzoo Aneja,Adv.
High Court of Chhatisgarh : Mr. Apoorv Kurup,AOR, Ms. Upama Bhttacharjee,Adv. Delhi High Court : Mr. Annam D.N. Rao,AOR, Mr. A. Venkatesh,Adv., Mr. Rahul Mishra,Adv., Mr. Avni Sharma,Adv., Ms. Ananya Khandelwal,Adv., Ms. Sangeetha M.R.,Adv.
State of Haryana : Dr. Monika Gusain,AOR, Ms. Manpreet Kaur Bhalla,Adv.
State of HP : Mr. Vikas Mahajan,Adv.(AAG), Mr. Vinod Sharma,AOR, Mr. Aakash Varma,Adv.
State of Jharkhand : Mr. Gopal Prasad,AOR, Mr. Jayesh Gaurav,Adv., Mr. Shalya Agarwal,Adv.
Jharkhand High Court : Mr. Himanshu Shekhar,AOR, Mr. Jamnesh Kumar,Adv., Mr. Parth Shekhar,Adv.
State of Goa : Mr. Arun R. Pedneker,Adv., Mr. Hitesh Kr. Sharma,Adv., Ms. Mukti Chowdhary,AOR
State of Guj. : Ms. Deepanwita Priyanka,AOR, Ms. D. Bharathi Reddy,AOR
High Court of Guj. : Mr. Nikhil Goel,AOR, Ms. Naveen Goel,Adv., Mr. Dushyant Sarna,Adv.
State of Raj. : Dr. Manish Singhvi,Sr.Adv., Mr. Shailja Nanda Mishra,Adv., Mr. Arpit Parkash,Adv., Mr. D.K.Devesh,AOR
State of Kar. : Mr. V.N. Raghupathy,AOR, Mr. Manendra Pal Gupta,Adv.
State of Kerala : Mr. G. Prakash,AOR, Mr. Jishnu M.L.,Adv., Ms. Priyanka Prakash,Adv.
Ms. Beena Prakash,Adv.
High Court of Kerala : Mr. P.N. Ravindran,Sr.Adv., Mr. T.G. Narayanan Nair,AOR
High Court of MP : Mr. Arjun Garg,AOR, Mr. Devansh Srivastav,Adv.
State of Mah. : Mr. Sachin Patil,AOR, Mr. Rahul Chitnis,Adv., Mr. Aditya Pande,Adv.
High Court of Bombay : Mr. Aniruddha P. Mayee,AOR, Mr. A. Rajarajan,Adv.
State of MP : Mr. Rahul Kaushik,AOR
State of Mizoram : Ms. Astha Sharma,AOR, Mr. Siddhesh Kotwal,Adv., Ms. Arshiya Ghose,Adv., Mr. Divyansh Tiwari,Adv., Ms. A. Upadhyay,Adv.
State of Meghalaya : Mr. Ranjan Mukherjee,AOR, Mr. K.R. Kharlyngdoh,Adv., Mr. Deniel Stone Lyngdoh,Adv.
High Court of Meghalaya : Mr. Sanjai Kumar Pathak,AOR, Ms. Shashi Pathak,Adv., Mr. Arvind Kumar Tripathi,Adv.
State of Nagaland : Ms. K. Enatoli Sema,AOR, Mr. Amit Kumar Singh,Adv.
State of Odisha : Mr. Som Raj Choudhury,AOR, Mr. Prashant Kumar,Adv., Mr. Ravi Prakash Mehrotra,AOR, Mr. Ankit Agarwal,Adv.
High Court of Orissa : Mr. Sibo Sankar Mishra,AOR, Mr. Niranjan Sahu,Adv.
State of Pb. : Ms. Jaspreet Gogia,AOR, Ms. Mandakini Singh,Adv., Ms. Ashima Mandla,Adv.
High Court of Raj. : Mr. Purushaindra Kaurav,Sr.Adv., Mr. K. Parameshwar,AOR, Mr. Sandeep Kumar Jha,AOR
State of Sikkim : Ms. Aruna Mathur,Adv., Mr. Avneesh Arputham,Adv., Ms. Anuradha Arputham,ADv., Ms. Geetanjali,Adv., Mr. Vivek Kohli,Adv., Ms. Yeshirinchhen,Adv., for M/s. Arputham Aruna & Co.,AOR
State of TN : Mr. Jayanth Muth Raj,Sr.Adv., Mr. M. Yogesh Kanna,AOR, Mr. Karthik R.,Adv.
State of Tripura : Mr. Shuvodeep Roy,AOR, Mr. Kabir Shankar Bose,Adv., Mr. Sataroop Das,Adv.
State of UP : Mr. Sarvesh Singh Baghel,Adv., Ms. Garima Prashad,AOR, Mr. Srinivas Vishven,Adv.
High Court of Allahabad : Mr. Sunny Choudhary,AOR
State of Uttarakhand : Mr. Vinay Arora,Adv.(DAG), Mr. Vikas Negi,Adv., Mr. Jatinder Kumar Bhatia,AOR, Mr. Ashutosh Kumar Sharma,Adv.
State of WB : Mr. Suhaan Mukerji,Adv., Mr. Vishal Prasad,Adv., Mr. Amit Verma,Adv.
Mr. Abhishek Manchanda,Adv., Ms. Kajal Dalal,Adv., Ms. Astha Sharma,Adv., Mr. Amit Verma,Adv., Mr. Pastut Dalvi,Adv., for M/s. PLR Chambers & Co.,AOR
UT of Chandigarh : Mr. Ankit Goel,AOR, Mr. R.K.Gupta,Adv.
Govt. of Puducherry : Mr. V.G. Pragasam,AOR, Mr. S. Prabhu Ramasubramanian,Adv., Mr. S.Manuraj,Adv.
UT of J&K : Mr. K.V.Jagdishwaran,Adv., Ms. G.Indira,AOR, Mr. M. Shoeb Alam,AOR
Mr. Mojahid Karim Khan,Adv.
High Court of J&K Mr. Sahil Tagotra,Adv. Andaman & Nicobar Ms. G. Indira,AOR
Admn. : Mr. Amit Kumar, AG., Mr. Avijit Mani Tripathi,Adv., Mr. K.V.KharLyngdoh,Adv., Mr. T.K. Nayak,Adv., Mr. P.S. Negi,Adv., Ms. Shruti Ram Kochar,Adv., Mr. S. Udaya Kumar Sagar,AOR, Ms. Swati Bhardwaj,Adv., Mr. Subhasish Mohanty,AOR, Mr. Nishant Ramakantrao Katneshwarkar,AOR, Mr. Ashok Mathur,AOR, Mr. Gopal Singh,AOR, Mr. R.P. Gupta,AOR, Ms. Sneha Kalita,AOR, Mr. Prem Sunder Jha,AOR, Mr. Leishangthem Roshmani Kh.,AOR, Mr. Milind Kumar,AOR
Mr. R. Nedumaran,AOR, Ms. Radhika Gautam,AOR, Mr. Mahfooz Ahsan Nazki,AOR, Mr. Vinay Arora,AOR, Mr. Naresh K. Sharma,AOR, Mr. P.I. Jose,AOR
Intervenor : Mr. Piyush Dwivedi,AOR, Mr. Manoj Dwivedi,Adv., Mr. Ramesh Kumar Tiwari,Adv.
Impleading party : Mr. Sanjeev Kumar Jain,Adv., Mr. S.K. Rajora,Adv., Mr. Akhileshwar Jha,Adv., Mr. Sandhya Sharma,Adv., Mr. Anikanissar Sayyed,AOR, Mr. Raghvendra Kumar,Adv., Mr. Anand Kr. Dubey,Adv., Mr. Narendra Kumar,AOR, Mr. B. V. Balaram Das, AOR, Mr. Abhimanyu Tewari, AOR, Ms. Diksha Rai, AOR, Ms. Aswathi M.K., AOR, Mr. V. N. Raghupathy, AOR, Ms. Astha Sharma, AOR, Ms. K. Enatoli Sema, AOR, Mr. Ravi Prakash Mehrotra, AOR, Mr. Milind Kumar, AOR, Mr. Narendra Kumar, AOR, Mr. M. Yogesh Kanna, AOR, Ms. Garima Prashad, AOR, Mr. Jatinder Kumar Bhatia, AOR, M/S. Plr Chambers And Co., AOR, Ms. G. Indira, AOR, Mr. Raj Bahadur Yadav, AOR, Mr. Ashok Mathur, AOR, Ms. Jaspreet Gogia, AOR, Mr. Gopal Singh, AOR, Mr. Apoorv Kurup, AOR, Mr. Nishant Ramakantrao Katneshwarkar, AOR, Mr. V. G. Pragasam, AOR, Mr. T. G. Narayanan Nair, AOR, Mr. Vinod Sharma, AOR, Mr. Sunny Choudhary, AOR, Mr. R. P. Gupta, AOR, Ms. Sneha Kalita, AOR, Mr. Sibo Sankar Mishra, AOR, Mr. Som Raj Choudhury, AOR, Intervenor-in-person, AOR, Dr. Monika Gusain, AOR, Mr. Ankit Goel, AOR, Mr. Arjun Garg, AOR, Mr. Rahul Kaushik, AOR, Mr. Prem Sunder Jha, AOR, Mr. Himanshu Shekhar, AOR, Mr. Piyush Dwivedi, AOR, Mr. K.parameshwar, AOR, M/S. Parekh & Co., AOR, Mr. G. N. Reddy, AOR, Mr. Abhinav Mukerji, AOR, Mr. P. I. Jose, AOR, Mr. Sanjai Kumar Pathak, AOR, Mr. Aniruddha P. Mayee, AOR, Mr. Sandeep Kumar Jha, AOR, Mr. Subhasish Mohanty, AOR, Ms. Deepanwita Priyanka, AOR, M/S. Arputham Aruna And Co, AOR, Mr. Nikhil Goel, AOR, Mr. R. Nedumaran, AOR, Ms. Radhika Gautam, AOR, Ms. Uttara Babbar, AOR, Mr. Mahfooz Ahsan Nazki, AOR, Mr. S.. Udaya Kumar Sagar, AOR, Ms. Mukti Chowdhary, AOR, Mr. Gopal Prasad, AOR, Mr. Shuvodeep Roy, AOR, Vinay Arora, AOR, Mr. Naresh K. Sharma, AOR, Mr. Annam D. N. Rao, AOR, Mr. Sumeer Sodhi, AOR, Mr. M. Shoeb Alam, AOR, Mr. G. Prakash, AOR

Headnote:
Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 - Section 32 - Public Prosecutors - Every State must by Notification appoint a Special Public Prosecutor for every Special Court for conducting cases only under provisions of Act - State of Assam has filed an affidavit indicating that ten POCSO Courts have already been set up and three will be set up in near future - Five existing Additional Sessions Judge Courts have been earmarked as POCSO Courts and ten new Courts to deal with POCSO cases will be set up - action appears to be in terms of our earlier orders. Court would like to direct that State of Assam and Registrar General of J&K High Court to file affidavits clearly stating that POCSO Courts shall deal exclusively with POCSO matters and not deal with any other matters – Held, Court direct all States who are present before us to take steps to appoint exclusive Public Prosecutors in all Courts which have been set up exclusively for POCSO cases – Court request Chief Justices of all High Court to ensure that in Judicial Academy of State special programmes are developed so that these Special Public Prosecutors attached to POCSO Courts are imparted training not only in law but also in child psychology, child behaviour, health issues etc - Court also request Director of National Judicial Academy to ensure that a training programme is developed in National Judicial Academy to train master trainers who can then work in Judicial Academies in each State - Court realize that National Judicial Academy cannot train all Special Public Prosecutors in country but they can prepare a team of master trainers who can travel from State to State to impart training to persons appointed as Special Public Prosecutors – Ordered accordingly.

ORDER :

Today the matters were listed for taking up the issue with regard to the State of Assam and Union Territory-Jammu and Kashmir. State of Assam has filed an affidavit indicating that ten POCSO Courts have already been set up and three will be set up in near future. Five existing Additional Sessions Judge Courts have been earmarked as POCSO Courts and ten new Courts to deal with POCSO cases will be set up. The action appears to be in terms of our earlier orders. We would like to direct that State of Assam and Registrar General of J&K High Court to file affidavits clearly stating that POCSO Courts shall deal exclusively with POCSO matters and not deal with any other matters These affidavits to be filed by 28th February, 2020.

2. List on 6.3.2020.

Jammu and Kashmir

3. On the last date i.e. 16.12.2019 in respect of the Union territory J&K we had passed the following order:

List on 8.1.2020."

4. No affidavit has been filed either by the Union Territory of J&K or by the High Court. Learned counsel for the Union Territory of J&K refers to the affidavit filed on 15th December, 2019 which clearly shows that there are no exclusive courts set up in the J&K to deal with POCSO matters. We had passed order dated 16.12.2019 which clearly laid down the criteria that in any District which has more than 100 POCSO cases, there will be atleast one exclusive POCSO Court and in any District where there are more than 300 POCSO cases, there should be atleast two POCSO Courts. We direct the Chief Secretary of the Union Terriytory of J&K to sit with the Registrar General of the High Court of J&K on or before 24th January, 2020. They shall prepare a chart of POCSO cases in each District. If there are more than 100 cases in any District then in pursuance of our directions dated 16.12.2019 one exclusive POCSO Court shall be set up and made functional before 1st March 2020. We make it clear that in case there is no District having more than 100 cases then there is no need to set up exclusive POCSO Court. List on 6.3.2020.

Letters sent by daughter of Mr. Kuldeep Singh Sengar

5. The complaint letter had been filed by the daughter of Mr. Kuldeep Singh Sengar. Keeping in view the fact that trial is completed and Mr. Kuldeep Singh has been convicted there is no need to pursue this matter.

EXCLUSIVE PUBLIC PROSECUTERS FOR POCSO (The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) COURTS

6. In our earlier orders we had emphasised the need to have exclusive Special Public Prosecutors for POCSO cases.

7. Section 32 of the POCSO Act clearly lays down that there shall be Special Public Prosecutors for the POCSO cases. Sub-Section 1 of Section 32 reads as follows:

"Every State must by Notification appoint a Special Public Prosecutor for every Special Court for conducting cases only under the provisions of the Act." (Emphasis supplied)

8. The language of the Act leaves no manner of doubt that the Special Public Prosecutor under the Act should not deal with other cases.

9. There is a salutary reason for appointing Public Prosecutors exclusively for POCSO cases. Public Prosecutors must be trained to deal with child victims and child witnesses. They need to understand the psychology of children. They need to empathize with children. They need to know how to bring out the truth from children who are victims of sexual abuse and have to undergo the trauma again while recounting the traumatic experience.

10. The job assigned to the Public Prosecutor for POCSO cases is a very onerous one which must be carried out with great care and sensitivity. Therefore not only is there a need to have exclusive Public Prosecutors but there is also a need to develop a training programme where these Special Public Prosecutors should be trained to deal with issues which will arise in their Courts.

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