A staggering 18,733 POCSO cases are pending in various courts across the 38 districts in Tamil Nadu, as of June 2026. But the pendency is merely the proverbial tip of the iceberg; the whole problem also includes patchy support services for children who opt to go through the procedural justice system.
Among the courts with the highest pendency of cases are the POCSO Court in Madurai with 1,000 cases unresolved; Tiruppur’s Fast Track Mahila Court with 790 pending cases; Chennai’s POCSO Court with 747 cases; and Tenkasi Principal District Court with 702 cases.
In 2019, the Supreme Court directed that in any judicial district where more than 100 cases are pending under the POCSO Act, an exclusive, designated special court must be set up to try only these offences. In 37 of the 38 districts in Tamil Nadu, the pending cases number over 100, but there are only 20 POCSO courts.
In 2023, the Registrar of the Madras High Court sent a proposal to the State government to start eight special courts exclusively for POCSO cases — one each in Erode, Krishnagiri, Namakkal, The Nilgiris, Ramanathapuram, Tiruchi, Tiruvarur, and Tiruppur.
“These courts have still not come up,” says Vidya Reddy of Tulir-CPCHSA. It seems all the starker if you juxtapose it against the pendency of cases in the courts. In the Juvenile Justice Boards, which also hear POCSO cases, daily hearings are held only in Chennai. In the other districts, they are held once or twice a week, and POCSO cases are heard in addition to other cases.
But according to Ms. Reddy, it is not just the pendency that is worrisome. “Once the complaint is registered, the child enters a lengthy process that will lead them to a verdict. While this can be traumatising for the child, the law puts in place several aspects that could make the process smoother. If the question is: is the bouquet of social sector interventions to assist procedural justice being implemented well, the answer is no,” she says.
Social sector support to the child includes assistance in filing a complaint, including translators or interpreters. Once the police are notified, they are meant to record the complaint and register an FIR, with the assigned police officer recording the statement of the child at his or her home or any location where the child feels comfortable. POCSO cases can even be filed online, but whether these cases are numbered is another question activists raise.
The child must undergo a medical examination within 24 hours, and is entitled to a copy of the report; but in practice, the family seldom gets one, Ms. Reddy claims.
The Child Welfare Committee is required to appoint a support person (SP) for each case; but how many children actually have one today? In a case that was registered earlier this month, since the support persons were appointed late, the child presented late for abortion at 24 weeks, and needed to hustle to get an order to terminate the pregnancy. Had there been an SP, the child could have gone for an abortion earlier, she says.
An official of the Social Welfare Department says the government has empanelled SPs at the district level. “We are also coming up with an SOP for SP to facilitate appointment for all survivors. These new guidelines will not only help in streamlining the appointment of SPs, but also help the district administration monitor the progress of each case in the court, and address the needs of survivors and their families, if any.”
After an FIR is filed, the child is entitled immediately to Special Relief, an amount to help the family tide over the emergency. This is never granted, and awareness about this provision is very poor, while the disbursal of the interim relief amount later has been streamlined, Ms. Reddy says. In a recent case of rape of a child, her mother had to pawn her jewellery to take care of the immediate expenses.
The police must complete the probe and file a chargesheet within 90 days. Appreciably, they have, by and large, ensured that the chargesheet in most cases is filed within 60 days, Ms. Reddy adds.
The protection guaranteed under POCSO Act and the obligation of State authorities to ensure that survivors are not subjected to secondary victimisation continue throughout the criminal justice process, says Andrew Sesuraj of Tamil Nadu Child Rights Watch. The primary consideration in every action concerning children must be the best interests of the child, he adds.
The uploading of case documents and judgments online, with redaction, is also extremely patchy. This will keep the parents or the family updated on the judgments and make access to the judgments easy. The delays in the system cannot be dismissed as merely procedural; they are also significant because they affect the children. For instance, a case of child rape recorded in 2008 has been listed in 2026. The child herself has forgotten the incident and her parents are begging the system not to bring it up again. Another key lacuna is the police not informing the family when the perpetrator is let out on bail, a mandate in the procedure. Since in many cases, the perpetrator is known to the child and the family, they are shocked to see them back on their streets and homes.
“Yes, the pendency is huge. But numbers by themselves mean something, just not everything. We must remember that justice might be a long process, but in the interim we must aim at doing all that is necessary to help the child and the family to cope in the best possible manner,” Ms. Reddy adds.
Published – July 06, 2026 10:26 pm IST
