Day 19 Arguments

January 17th 2020

 

Today, the counsel for Madhya Pradesh informed the Bench of the progress in the establishment of exclusive POCSO Courts in the State. It may be recalled that, in one of the earlier hearings, the Bench had imposed exemplary costs on Madhya Pradesh for not responding to its orders and intimating it of the progress in setting up POCSO Courts.

 

Madhya Pradesh files application to waive costs

An application was filed today to set aside the order imposing costs. Moreover, the counsel representing the State also filed an affidavit containing the details of POCSO Courts which have been so far set up. As per it, out of the fifty districts, thirty eight districts have more than one hundred cases pending under the POCSO Act. So far, twenty eight exclusive POCSO Courts have been set up, submitted the Counsel.

 

Issue of Human Rights Courts to be addressed in separate petition

The Bench observed that the issue of setting up Human Rights Courts shall not be dealt with in the present batch of petitions. Instead, it will be addressed during the course of hearing in Bhavika v Union of India [Writ Petition (C) No. 819/2019], noted the Bench.

 

With this, the Bench directed that the matters be listed on March 6, 2020.