It may take three months for the special Disha courts proposed to be set up in every district across the State to start functioning, according to Kritika Shukla, one of the two special officers appointed for effective implementation of the new Act.
“If everything goes according to the plan, we will have these first-ever special courts dealing exclusively with heinous crimes like rape and the cases filed under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012, in place in three months,” Ms. Shukla has told The Hindu.
“Work is in full swing to put in place a seamless network of the police, the courts and the forensic science laboratory, the three key players whose coordination is imperative.”
A Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) and a Disha app have been developed for effective implementation of the new Act and Chief Minister Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy will release them on February 7. Ms. Shukla has said the special courts in the 13 districts are likely to be place by February 15. For smooth and effective functioning, each of these courts will have a district judge and 20 staff members.
As a first step, the mahila police stations, which will now function as Disha courts, will immediately issue charge sheets in the 245 pending cases, all of them identified as heinous crimes of either rape or filed under the POCSO, investigate them and send them to the special courts.
According to the special officer, in addition to the existing mahila police stations, 18 more are proposed to be set up tentatively by January 31.
Challenges ahead
Putting in place a strong forensic science laboratories is a challenge. “We have lost the well-equipped main ‘lab’ to Telangana at the time of bifurcation and may of the experts chose to stay back in Hyderabad. We are having to start afresh here,” she says informing that 118 contract posts have been notified and the government expected to fill these posts in the next 45 days. The idea is to set up genetic DNA testing labs in Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, and Tirupati but since staff is hard to come by, the government wants to incentivise by offering them higher salaries.
Meanwhile, experts from forensic labs in Delhi and Bengaluru are roped in to train a panel of local doctors in medical examination of the samples obtained in such cases. “The training will take place from January 30 to February 8,” she says.
A dip in such crimes will be seen after speedy convictions become a reality. “These are crimes of passion. They will decrease only after people get the cases moving on a fast track. The first few convictions will serve as a deterrent to others who will think twice before resorting to such heinous acts, she says predicting a spurt in reporting of such cases. “The victims will visit police stations confidently knowing that the guilty will be punished.”
