A model, child-friendly court is likely to begin functioning this May or June to exclusively hear cases involving children.
Among the features of the court, which will initially function out of the city civil court complex in Bengaluru, will be a single visibility curtain that will ensure that the child does not get to see the accused.
It will also have a sprinkling of play equipment to help relieve stress.
Later moved
Karnataka High Court Judge and Chairman of the Juvenile Justice Committee Justice Ashok B. Hinchigeri said the model court will later be moved to a permanent location in the city.
“It will be established on one or two acres of land and the search is on for it,” he said, participating in an orientation programme organised for special judges under the POCSO Act and principal magistrates under the JJ Act here on Saturday.
The programme was jointly organised by the Karnataka State Legal Services Authority, Juvenile Justice Committee, Karnataka State Commission for Protection of Child Rights, Karnataka State Integrated Child Protection Society, UNICEF and Bachpan Bachao Andolan.
POCSO courts
Karnataka has one special court to deal with POCSO cases in each district. With the number of cases of child abuse being reported from Bengaluru being on the rise, Justice Hinchigeri said such cases should be taken up on priority basis.
Asked about the delay in delivering verdicts, he said multiple factors, such as the court being overburdened, or witnesses not turning up, were contributing factors.
‘Doing well’
Mentioning that 94,000 cases of crimes against children being reported by the NCRB in 2015, Justice Madan B. Lokur, Judge, Supreme Court, said that these were not specific to any State.
But he added that Karnataka was doing “well” generally in terms of child rights.
Later, in a session on ‘child psychology and child friendly approach,’ Shekhar Sheshadri, Head, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, NIMHANS, said that children become “further victims” through inquiry, interrogation and intrusive detailing of the event, and recommended inquiry of the child once instead of multiple times.
