GUWAHATI
Fast-track special courts (FTSCs) are much more efficient than other courts in handling rape cases and those related to the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, a report released by the India Child Protection said on Wednesday.
The report also said West Bengal, in the eye of a storm after the rape and murder of a trainee doctor in Kolkata’s R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital, recorded less than 2% rate of disposal — the lowest in India — in such cases, apart from the fact that only five out of the 123 earmarked FTSCs are functioning in the State.
Established in 2005, the India Child Protection (ICP) is a child rights protection organisation dedicated to combatting child sexual abuse and related crimes, including child trafficking, exploitation of children in the digital space, and child marriage.
The report, titled ‘Fast Tracking Justice’ and focusing on the role of FTSCs in reducing case backlogs, said such courts across India disposed of 83% of the cases in 2022 compared with 10% by the conventional courts. This has been deemed significant as 755 of the 1,023 earmarked FTSCs have been functioning till August.
The functional FTSCs include 410 exclusively for POCSO cases.
The Centre launched the FTSC scheme in October 2019 following a Supreme Court directive to set up special courts for expeditious disposal of cases of rape and sexual assault on children.
The ICP report said the FTSCs showed “remarkable efficiency” by disposing of 52% of the 4,16,638 rape and POCSO cases taken up since the inception of the scheme. The disposal rate kept improving from 83% in 2022 to 94% in 2023.
The report said Maharashtra and Punjab topped in disposing of 79.5% and 71.3% of the cases till December 2023, which was well above the national average of 52%. Among the southern Indian States, Kerala performed the best with a disposal rate of 69.5% followed by Karnataka with 62.2%, and Tamil Nadu with 58.4%.
West Bengal fared the worst with a disposal rate of 1.6%, way below the other three at the bottom of the chart — Jammu and Kashmir (25%), Meghalaya (26.6%), and Delhi (28.3%).
The report did not have any data for Arunachal Pradesh, Ladakh, and Sikkim.
‘1,000 more FTSCs’
The ICP report said India needs at least 1,000 more FTSCs to dispose of one rape or POCSO case every three minutes to clear the backlog in a year. The backlog of pending cases rose from 2,81,049 in 2020 to 4,17,673 by the end of 2022.
Bhuwan Ribhu, child rights activist and founder of Child Marriage-Free India, of which the ICP is a partner, recommended an urgent need to make the FTSCs central to ensuring justice for the victims.
“India is reaching the tipping point to end the long-awaited justice in rape and child sexual abuse cases. This is the crucial moment where we must invest in the safety and security of our women and children, ensuring their right to justice by disposing of all pending cases within the next three years by creating 1,000 new FTSCs,” he said.
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“This is also the moment to provide for rehabilitation and compensation for victims, and to promote a legal deterrent in society by making a policy for time-bound disposal of cases and appeals across all courts, including High Courts and the Supreme Court, and affixing accountability across the justice delivery process,” he added.
The ICP report, based on data published by the National Crime Records Bureau, parliamentary questions and answers, and other official sources, recommended the optimum utilisation of the Nirbhaya Fund for the establishment and smooth functioning of the additional FTSCs.
The Union government created the Nirbhaya Fund after the 2012 Delhi gang rape to support initiatives that protect women’s safety and dignity.
“The additional FTSCs can easily operate for at least two years with the available funds, as ₹1,700 crore is unutilised, while the requirement is ₹1,302 crore,” the report said.
Published - September 11, 2024 06:51 pm IST
