Mangaluru: Special Courts will be setup in all districts of Karnataka to deal with cases under POCSO Act (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act). Two Fast Track Courts are already rendering such service in Bengaluru, informed State Minister for Law, Justice and Human Rights T B Jayachandra.

“In the state under POCSO act, 1577 cases have been registered, in which 281 cases have seen conviction while 1296 cases are yet to be disposed. Already IPC 376 has seen drastic changes and quantum of punishment has also been increased. As per the policy of Union government, state government had already established fast track courts in all districts of the state. And district principal session court judge will be dealing with the cases.” He said.

Around 400 cases were registered from Bengaluru alone. A total of 59 cases have been reported from Dakshina Kannada.

Speaking on low conviction on sexual offenders, the minister said ” Sexual assault cases should be disposed within 1 year but when the witnesses turning hostile, cases get prolonged and delayed. Hence government after consultation with the the legal experts has taken a decision to amend the law.”

“The Central Government has made IPC Section 376 (Punishment for rape) more rigid after the Nirbhaya Case two years ago,” he said.

Also, the Supreme Court has ruled that rape victims’ statement to be directly recorded by a judicial magistrate instead of police officials to cut short protracted proceedings.

About creating awareness among the public especially youth, he said that the Information Department was already directed to telecast advertisements against child and other sexual harassment on television.