The Madras High Court has directed the Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary to constitute a committee comprising Home Secretary, Health Secretary and Law Secretary to consider a number of suggestions made by the court to address the systemic gaps in implementing criminal laws related to children.

A Division Bench of Justices G.R. Swaminathan and V. Lakshminarayanan issued the direction while disposing of a public interest litigation (PIL) petition filed by advocate S. Venkatesh of Madurai. The judges directed the government to bestow its attention to the suggestions and revert back within four months.

The PIL petitioner had sought a direction to the State government to file a curative petition before the Supreme Court against the acquittal of engineering graduate S. Daswant from the charge of subjecting a seven-year-old girl to aggravated sexual assault and murdering her at Mugalivakkam, near Chennai in February 2017.

The judges held no such direction could be issued since resorting to litigation was entirely a discretionary act and the court could not dictate as to how such discretion should be exercised. “We are afraid, a citizen, nay, a third party does not possess a vested legal right to force the State of Tamil Nadu to litigate,” the Bench wrote.

Nevertheless, since the State government itself had voluntarily reported to the court that it does intend to file a curative petition before the top court challenging the acquittal of Dashwanth, the judges recorded the submission and brought the curtains down with respect to the petitioner’s plea.

Incidentally, they took note of several gaps in the implementation of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and Juvenile Justice Act cases and obtained the assistance of Deepika Murali, counsel for child rights organisation Tulir to address them. The judges highlighted the need for the police, healthcare professionals, courts and juvenile justice boards to undertake the correctional requirements.

The Division Bench said, in cases of consensual relationship between minor children, the police invariably end up booking cases only against male children despite the POCSO Act being gender and sex neutral. They said, registration of criminal cases against the male children unduly criminalises adolescent relationships. Therefore, “when a girl’s parents or guardians insist on an First Information Report (FIR), police must inform them that the male child too has the same option and inform his parents or guardians accordingly,” the judges suggested.

They also said, the police could avoid registering FIRs against minor boys for non heinous offences and ensure that the FIR copies were provided free of cost to the parents/guardians with due acknowledgement. The court suggested framing of a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for sharing a child’s identity with schools, hospitals and other agencies strictly on a need-to-know basis.

The Division Bench also impressed upon the need for establishing a clear cut protocol for medical termination of pregnancies and medical examination of male victims in POCSO Act cases. Provision of child witness deposition rooms in every POCSO court and increasing the number of such courts were the other suggestions made by the court.

Published - August 19, 2026 12:14 am IST