Ensure speedy trials for women and children

At a time when violence against women and children is on the rise in the country, failure to ensure speedy justice for the victims remains a serious concern. According to a report by this daily, as of June 30 this year, 1,16,392 cases were pending before 101 Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunals across the country. Of these, 26,249 had remained unresolved for more than five years. Although the backlog has declined from 1,42,575 cases in September last year, the number of pending cases remains too high. Equally worrying is the failure to implement a High Court directive issued a decade ago to monitor whether tribunals are completing trials within the time limit set by law. What is the point of having laws and judicial directives if the institutions responsible for enforcing them fail to act?

Under the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act, 2000, trials must be completed within 180 days of the framing of charges. But this deadline is frequently missed. In a judgment delivered on December 5, 2016, the High Court directed the Supreme Court registrar general to establish a monitoring cell to oversee compliance with the deadline. The cell was supposed to include representatives from the home and law ministries and submit periodic reports to the Supreme Court and the government, enabling action against those responsible for unexplained delays. The law also requires tribunal judges, public prosecutors and investigating officers to submit separate reports explaining delays when trials cannot be completed within the stipulated period.

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However, a decade later, the monitoring cell remains non-existent; leaving no mechanism to track compliance with the deadline. An official at the Supreme Court Registrar General's Office argued that the 180-day provision is directory rather than mandatory. Even so, this should not be an excuse for allowing cases to remain unresolved for years. Such delays deny survivors of rape and sexual violence, as well as the families of murder victims, timely justice and can undermine public confidence in the justice system.

However, speeding up trials must not come at the cost of proper investigations. As we have previously argued in this column, faulty investigations and delays in obtaining forensic reports can undermine the pursuit of justice. Hence, the authorities must both procedural delays and the weaknesses that prevent cases from being properly investigated and prosecuted. The aim should be to ensure both timely and fair trials.

We urge the Supreme Court administration to implement the High Court's 2016 directive without further delay. The monitoring cell must have clear responsibilities and a regular reporting mechanism to identify the causes of delays and hold responsible officials accountable. The authorities must also address other obstacles to timely trials, including difficulties in securing witnesses' attendance and obtaining forensic evidence. Setting deadlines alone will achieve little unless the institutions concerned have the capacity and commitment to meet them.