Hardlook: Guidelines in place to make trial process

less traumatic
indianexpress.com/article/cities/delhi/hardlook-guidelines-in-place-to-make-trial-process-less-traumatic/

3/7/2016
Written by Aneesha Mathur | Delhi | Published:March 7, 2016 2:06 am
The protocol looks at providing comfortable environment for vulnerable witnesses, and has 39 sections,
including provisions for recording evidence via video link.
Delhi High Court notified the Structured Protocol for Safety of Child Victims, Sexual Offence Victims and
Disabled in 2013. It was formulated by a committee headed by Justice Gita Mittal of the Delhi High Court. The
guidelines draw from the UN Model Law on Justice in Matters involving Child Victims and Witnesses of Crime
published by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, 2009 and also from orders passed by the Delhi High Court in
2008 for creation of crisis intervention centres and support personnel.
The preamble states, To respond effectively to the needs of vulnerable witnesses, the criminal justice system
needs to respond proactively with sensitivity in an enabling and age appropriate manner, so that the trial process
is less traumatic for them.
The protocol looks at providing comfortable environment for vulnerable witnesses, and has 39 sections,
including provisions for recording evidence via video link, in-camera proceedings, and use screens and one-way
mirrors to protect a child witness from the accused. Section 29 of the protocol says it is the duty of the court to
provide a comfortable environment to the vulnerable witness.
The definitions section of the protocol includes provision for Support Person which means and includes
guardian ad litem (guardian appointed by court to represent interest of children in legal actions), legal aid lawyer,
facilitators, interpreters, translators and any other person appointed by court or any other person appointed by
the court to provide support, accompany and assist the vulnerable witness to testify or attend judicial
proceedings.

Section 20 of the protocol makes it mandatory for a special court hearing a case registered under The Protection
of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO Act) to appoint a facilitator to assist the vulnerable witnesses in
effectively communicating at various stages of trial and or to coordinate with the other stakeholders.
According to the notification, The facilitator may be an interpreter, a translator, child psychologist, psychiatrist,
social worker, guidance counselor, teacher, parent, or relative of such witness who shall be under oath to pose
questions, according to meaning intended by the counsel.
Section 15 gives power to the special court to appoint any person as guardian ad litem as per law to a witness
who is a victim of, or a witness to a crime having regard to his best interests after considering the background of
the guardian ad litem and his familiarity with the judicial process, social service programmes, and child
development, giving preference to the parents of the child, if qualified. The guardian ad litem may be a member
of bar/practicing advocate, except a person who is a witness in any proceeding involving the child.
The special court is required to have a waiting area for vulnerable witness where the witness, as well as the
support person, lawyer of the witness facilitation, if any, can wait separate from waiting areas used by other
persons. The waiting area for vulnerable witnesses should be furnished so as to make a vulnerable witness
comfortable.
In 2009, following a writ petition filed by the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) over the lack of adequate
support for rape victims, the Delhi High Court, after taking suggestions from all stakeholders, also asked the
DCW to formulate draft guidelines to enable authorities to effectively tackle sexual offences including incest and
child sexual abuse offences.

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The guidelines, which were later distributed as a handbook on child sexual abuse by the DCW and Delhi State
Legal Services Authority to the police, courts, hospitals, Child Welfare Committee (CWC) and other stakeholders,
includes the provision that in cases of incest, the victim should be sent to a foster home. It also stated that while
the victim stays in the foster home, the family members be allowed to meet the victim only in the presence of the
support person and care be taken by the staff of the home that the meeting is not used to pressure/influence the
victim to change statement.
The Rape Crisis Cell is also expected to have accredited support services for shelter, social workers,
counsellors, mental health professionals, lawyers, and others. The standard operating procedures for the OneStop Crisis Centres (OSCCs) were finalised in 2015, after intervention of the Delhi High Court which took up the
issue as part of a PIL on womens safety.
Such crisis centres have started functioning in some government hospitals. Work is on for creating OSCCs in
the six district courts. Sources, however, say there are very few counsellors/clinical psychologists engaged full
time at the hospitals, and persons are on call as and when required. The work is being monitored by the DCW
and the DLSA. Reports on the actual implementation of the policy are not yet available. Sources at the DLSA say
that the OSCCs at the district courts may be made functional by April, but there is a shortage of trained
counsellors.
In January this year, a PIL was also filed by NGO Bachpan Bachao Andolan seeking speedy disposal of cases
filed under the POCSO Act. In its petition, the NGO sought directions to the state police to complete investigation
in cases registered under this act within a period of three months. The NGO also sought that failing this timebound investigation, the police be obliged to file a written report before the DLSA, which should then issue
necessary directions. The matter is set to come up for hearing on March 9.

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