Mumbai:
The Bombay High Court had expressed serious concern about the flaws in the implementation of the POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) Act. While hearing a petition on the sexual assault on several nursery school girls at a school near Mumbai that had sparked massive protests last month, the court said a committee should be formed to suggest standard operating procedures for police, hospitals and schools to investigate cases of sexual assault on minors. The court also said the progress in the investigation was “unsatisfactory”.
The authorities were also rapped for the job they did on the progress report in the case which was also submitted today by the Advocate General Birendra Saraf.
The court pointed out several flaws, including an incomplete sentence.
The court gave three suggestions on who can be included in the committee to enforce POCSO rules. The list included retired IPS officer Meera Borwankar, former Bombay High Court judge Sadhana Jadhav and Shalini Phasalkar Joshi.
The court also said women attendants should be employed in boys’ school to look after the minor boys.
“There should be a woman to take care of minor boys in boys’ schools too. It is not that because he is a boy, he should be sent with a male employee for toilet etc. Female employees will take better care of them,” the judges said.
The court noted that three things have been done since last hearing — test identification parade, forensics and CDRs.