6 months ago
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The High Court of Karnataka has issued a technology-driven Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) titled, “SOP for Protection and Rehabilitation of Minor Victims of Sexual Offences, 2025,” which would beryllium successful unit till the State authorities frames a SOP successful consultation with experts.
The tribunal issued the SOP aft noticing that the authorities had not lone neglected their duties nether laws but had besides ignored respective directions issued by the tribunal connected aesculapian termination of gestation and rehabilitation of insignificant victims of intersexual offences.
Justice Suraj Govindaraj issued the directions portion allowing the petition of a 13-year-old girl, who became large owed to intersexual assault, for aesculapian termination of pregnancy.
While directing the Principal Secretary, Women and Child Welfare, and the Director-General of Police (DGP) to formulate a last SOP based connected adept input, the tribunal said its SOP would beryllium operative arsenic an “indicative” 1 till specified time.
Integrated system
The court’s SOP proposes a unified, time-bound, and technology-integrated strategy for managing cases of kid intersexual maltreatment — from the archetypal study to implicit rehabilitation — with the nonsubjective of eliminating bureaucratic delays, inter-departmental silos, and repeated trauma for victims.
The model of SOP is based connected the provisions of large pieces of authorities similar the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012, Juvenile Justice (JJ) Act, 2015, Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act, 2021, and the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPD) Act, 2023, etc.
The captious proviso of the court’s SOP is the absorption to found Digital POCSO Portal (DPP) — a secure, cloud-based level integrated with nationalist systems specified arsenic the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network System (CCTNS) — and the e-Courts Mission Mode Project.
The SOP states that each lawsuit would beryllium digitally tracked successful existent time, ensuring “zero delay” successful each procedural measurement — from First Information Report (FIR) registration and forensic introspection to complaint expanse filing and compensation disbursal.
Absolute confidentiality
Each victim, the SOP says, volition person to beryllium assigned a Pseudonym Identifier (PID) to warrant implicit confidentiality; and delicate idiosyncratic information volition person to beryllium stored successful an encrypted “Identity Vault,” accessible lone with judicial authorisation to support the close to privateness implicit digitally stored data.
The court’s SOP sets retired a strict confidentiality and counselling protocol for cases involving gestation of insignificant victims, who are entitled to unbiased, trauma-informed counselling connected some continuation and termination of pregnancy.
If MTP is chosen, the SOP states, it indispensable comply with the MTP Act, 2021, allowing termination up to 24 weeks with consent from the insignificant and guardian — or, if necessary, from the Child Welfare Committee. Beyond 24 weeks, the SOP states, court’s support and a aesculapian board’s proposal are required and each specified proceedings volition stay confidential and encrypted connected the DPP.
An automated alert strategy connected the DPP dashboard volition person to emblem immoderate procedural breaches. For instance, the tribunal said, if a aesculapian introspection oregon FSL study exceeds its statutory deadline, the DPP volition make a “red alert,” triggering contiguous supervisory involution arsenic each action, from constabulary probe to tribunal orders, volition beryllium digitally time-stamped and auditable.
The SOP establishes timelines for outgo of compensation by stating that the District Legal Services Authority (DLSA) indispensable use for interim compensation wrong 15 days of the FIR and each payments volition person to disbursed done Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT), with delays beyond 30 days automatically generating a ‘red’ alert to supervisory judicial and administrative heads.
