KOCHI: The high court has raised a suo motu case regarding the incompetence of prosecutors leading to acquittals, including in Pocso cases.
A division bench of Justice K Vinod Chandran and Justice Ziyad Rahman, which is considering cases on offences against women and children, raised a suo motu case after noticing that prosecution is continuously failing in properly ascertaining the age of the victim, which is required under Pocso Act for conviction.
The court revealed its decision to raise a suo motu case in the judgment dealing with the appeal filed by a priest accused of repeatedly raping a minor girl.
On the question whether the age of the victim was proved, the prosecutor had argued that a birth certificate issued from the school is sufficient to prove the age as per Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) Act, 2015.
The bench noted that the offence in the case was committed prior to 2015 and cited the high court’s recent decision (Rajan vs State of Kerala, 2021), in which it was held that admission register of a school cannot be a valid proof of date of birth.
While deciding to raise a suo motu case, the bench said prosecutors are becoming increasingly lethargic in determining the age of the victim in most juvenile cases, which is resulting in offenders going scot-free.
In the present case, prosecution did not elicit the age of the child from the father even though he was examined, the court pointed out. The accused was acquitted under Pocso Act as the age of the victim was not proved by prosecution. However, he was imposed with life imprisonment as the offence of rape was proved.
