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Prayagraj, July 05 (HS). Allahabad High Court has made a serious comment on the unilateral rejection of bail applications by trial courts in POCSO cases without considering the medical report of age determination. It said that trial courts are deciding bail applications in a mechanical manner without considering the age of the victim. This is like an abortion for the judicial system. This attitude reflects their bias.
The court has directed the Judicial Training and Research Institute Lucknow, District Judges, Director Generals of Police and the Prosecution Office to take concrete steps to improve this. It has been said that they should be trained under a continuous learning program and their work culture or mental ability should be improved so that there can be a change in the judicial system. And innocent people should not be kept in jail unnecessarily.
The court said that bail is related to the fundamental right to life under Article 21 of the person. This is not only a legal but also a constitutional right which should not be ignored. This order was given by Justice Ajay Bhanot while accepting the bail plea of Anirudh of Jalaun.
The court has said that trial courts should give full importance to the age of the victim while disposing of bail applications under POCSO. Also, all the documents related to her should be carefully examined.
An FIR was lodged against the petitioner from Jalaun under various sections of IPC including rape. While the victim stated that both were living in a consensual relationship. The court found that there was a contradiction in the age of the victim. Her age was recorded as 13 years and two months in the school records. Whereas, in her statement, she stated her age as 15 years and in the medical report it was found to be 18 years. The court said that often people write a lesser age in school than the reality. Medical reports should be trusted over contradictions in Islam.
The court, while observing 40 such cases, found that the trial courts had outright rejected the bail applications considering them to be POCSO cases. Citing the order given by the Supreme Court in the Monis and Aman case, the court expressed regret over the investigation and the decisions of the trial courts. The court said that when there is a contradiction in the matter of determining the age of the victim and no objectionable things were said against the petitioners on behalf of the victim, despite this the bail applications were rejected by the trial courts. Also, the trial courts have been asked to thoroughly check the age related records while disposing of the bail applications of POCSO.
The court has directed that the age of the victim in a POCSO case should be determined through medical examination and the investigating officer should present such a report to the court hearing the bail application. The DGP has also issued a circular and directed to strictly follow the order of the Supreme Court.