IMPORTANT POINT
The steps taken by the State Government in the Women and Child Development Department as disclosed in the statement filed by the Director of the Department are merely steps towards imparting training for the stakeholders, sanctioning of amounts to the Child Protection Officers to meet their expenses and for establishing a child friendly Court in Ernakulam. The aforesaid, according to me, are only a very few among the various issues to be tackled in order to achieve the object and purpose of the statute.

ORDER :

In the course of the hearing of the above matter arising under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (the POCSO Act), a few disturbing facts concerning the implementation of the Said statute have come to the notice of this court. The POCSO Act is one that provides for protection of children from sexual assault, sexual harassment and child pornography by safeguarding their interests through a prompt and systematic multi-sectoral intervention involving the State Government, the Child Welfare Committee under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, the Police, the Special Court, Non-Government Organizations and Professionals and Experts assisting the children. Unlike other penal statutes, the POCSO Act provides for the participation of the Child also in the proceedings before the Special Court to make the justice delivery effective and meaningful. Section 25(2) of the statute which mandates that copies of the documents specified in Section 207 of the Code of Criminal Procedure shall be given to the child or to his/her legal representative, upon the final report being filed in the case and Section 40 of the statute which provides that the child shall be entitled to assistance of a legal counsel of his/her choice and if he/she is unable to afford a legal counsel, the Legal Service Authority shall provide to him/her a legal counsel in the matter, demonstrate the aforesaid Statutory intendment. Section 33(8) of the Statute providing for compensation to the child also illustrates the aforesaid contemplation of the statute. At the same time, it is the scheme of the said statute that the children who have been sexually abused are not Subjected to secondary victimisation in the course of the justice delivery process. Similarly, unlike other penal statutes, Section 39 of the POCSO Act makes it obligatory for the State Government to prepare guidelines for the use of the stakeholders to be associated with pre-trial and trial stages to assist the child. In exercise of the power conferred under Section 39, the State Government has prepared elaborate guidelines prescribing the general principles to be followed by professionals and experts assisting the child at pre-trial and trial stages, guidelines for interviewing the child, guidelines for the medical and health professionals, guidelines for psychologists and mental health experts, guidelines for Social workers and Support persons, guidelines for child development experts etc. The guidelines also provide for rendering legal aid and other services to the victim. The guidelines prescribe in detail the roles to be played by the Special Public Prosecutor and the lawyer of the child in the matter of conducting the cases before the Special Court. Suffice it to say that the guidelines are exhaustive, and if the same are given effect to in its letter and spirit, the POCSO Act would certainly serve its purpose.

2. Although the guidelines have been formulated by the State Government as early as on 20.4.2015, the same were not made available to any of the stakeholders including the State Legal Services Authority which is to play a pivotal role in the implementation of the POCSO Act or to the public, until this court took notice of the said fact in this matter. Needless to say, the POCSO Act was being implemented in the State during the last almost five years without the stakeholders not being aware of the guidelines to be followed by them in the matter of implementing the provisions of the statute. It was noticed that on account of the same, the implementation of the statute was not in accordance with the statutory intendment and the children involved the cases were deprived of their valuable rights to avail legal aid and various other benefits. To quote one instance, even while the Government is spending crores for giving effect to the Statute, the hard reality is that the children involved in the cases are not even provided the diet money which they are en