SC to improve justice system in sexual offences

The Supreme Court on Wednesday woke up to express shock over sexual crimes going on unabated despite all sorts of laws and chose to register on its own a suo motu writ petition "to get a holistic view to make criminal justice system responsive in cases of rape and other sexual crimes."

In an 18-page order registering the case, the bench noted with disdain that many amendments were introduced in criminal law post the Nirbhaya incident, which shocked the conscience of the nation, but the desired results could not be achieved.

It decided to take stock of the implementation of criminal law, including these amendments, related to rape and other sexual offences by calling for the status of affairs from the ground level from various duty holders like investigation agencies, prosecution, medico-forensic agencies, rehabilitation, legal aid agencies, the state governments, and also the high courts to get a "holistic view."

Appointing senior advocate Sidharth Luthra as "Amicus curiae" to assist the court, the bench sought over a dozen status reports, including one on whether all police stations have a woman officer to record information of the victim and whether FIRs without crime number is recorded in a police station even if the offence is beyond its territorial jurisdiction.

The court also wanted to know if any state has published guidelines in the shape of Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for response after getting information related to rape or similar offences.

Noting Section 166A was inserted in the IPC through an amendment in 2013 on failure of a public servant to record any information of such offences, the court wanted to know if any case has been registered against any public servant and whether there is any mechanism to complain about it.

The court also noted that it comes across medical opinions such as "the victim is habitual of sexual intercourse" despite Section 53A inserted in the Evidence Act not to comment on the character of the victim. It also wanted to know whether the police completes its investigation and submits the final report of sexual crimes within two months as stipulated under the law.