Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala State Child Rights Commission has issued an order to director-general of police Loknath Behra to ensure that police officers appearing in courts formed for hearing sexual abuse cases do not wear uniforms.
The court also ordered that police officers appearing before Juvenile justice board also should not be in uniform. A Division Bench of the commission comprising chairperson Shobha Koshy and member K. Naseer directed the DGP to issue an order within one month.
The DGP should report the same to the commission within one month. As per rules, police officers cannot appear in uniform even in front of the Juvenile Justice Board that hear cases dealing with children involved in conflict with the law. The same privilege should be given to children who are subjected to sexual abuse and are appearing in special courts. If this was not complied with it was against law and child-friendly proceedings, the commission opined.
Special Courts were set up to deal with sexual abuse against children under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO Act), 2012 Section 44 of the POCSO Act, 2012 empowered the commission to monitor the implementation of the provisions of this Act. Section 32 of POCSO Act provides that the State Government shall appoint a Special Public Prosecutor for every Special Court for conducting cases only under the provision of this Act.
