Hearing a suo motu PIL on the Badlapur sexual assault case of two kindergarten students, the Bombay High Court on Tuesday (September 3, 2024) said that the State of Maharashtra must sensitise boys to be able to build a safe environment for girls to grow in the society. The State committee constituted in the case should suggest and implement measures to tackle sexual assault of children and similar crimes.
A Division Bench of Justices Revati Mohite Dere and Prithviraj K. Chavan reiterated that the State of Maharashtra must take initiatives to teach boys from a very young age about the right and wrong, on respecting women and girls. The Bench also tweaked the Central government’s slogan, ‘Beti Padhao, Beti Bachao‘ to ‘Beta Padhao aur Beti Bachao’ (Educate son and protect daughter).
The court also asked the police to not make any rush into probing the case out of public pressure. “Ensure investigation is proper. Ensure this is not a case of justice hurried. Build a watertight case and don’t file a chargesheet hurriedly under public pressure. Investigation must be done correctly,” the Bench stated.
The Bench also emphasised on sensitisation of doctors, “Efforts must be taken to make even private doctors aware that they cannot refuse to examine a rape victim under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences [POCSO] Act. They cannot ask the victims to go to the police.”
The Bench appointed retired Justices Sadhana Jadhav and Shalini Phansalkar Joshi of the Bombay High Court to head a committee which will give comprehensive recommendations for effective implementation of the POCSO Act in educational institutions. Former Indian Police Service, Meeran Borwankar is also appointed as part of this committee along with a former school principal. The Bench suggested including one more retired school principal preferably someone with experience of working in rural schools. The court has also asked the State government to make members of the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) part of this committee.
The committee was initially established to recommend suggestions to ensure safety and security of girl children in educational institutions. It now includes suggesting steps to address trauma undergone by child victims of sexual assault.
“The committee will look into safety and security of children in schools. We will keep it gender-neutral. Not just girls, boys too. Just because it is a boy, it is not that nothing untoward will happen,” the court observed. The committee is asked to submit its report within eight weeks.
Responding to the concerns of judges over implementation of the suggestions made by the committee so far, advocate General Birendra Saraf representing the State of Maharashtra, assured the Bench that every suggestion by the committee would be implemented in the State.
Coming heavily on the Special Investigation Team’s [SIT] progress into the matter, Justice Chavan said, “We are not asking you to divulge the case details, but it should reflect in the case diary. We are not satisfied with how the investigation is conducted so far as the purpose of case diary is frustrated if it’s written stereotypically. We were expecting the cast diary to reflect concrete steps the SIT has taken. From last 35 years, we see the same stereotypes in your case diaries. You need to do away with this style of not maintaining a proper case diary. The case diary must be accessed only by the investigating team and the court and not by any third person like the accused. You need to thus maintain them properly. Mr. Saraf please understand we are here after a strong outburst of the common man. We are speaking about the larger picture.”
“The case diary does not mention any proper steps taken to arrest the absconding accused. The case diary must reflect in detail the steps taken to trace the absconders. The police have completed the crucial Test Identification Parade (TIP), obtained the Forensic reports and preserved the school’s CCTV footage. What else remains now,” Justice Mohite Dere asked.
Advocate Saraf responded, “The SIT is taking genuine efforts to probe the incident properly. We are in the process of filing the chargesheet.”
The hearing is adjourned to October 1.
