UP govt requests Allahabad HC to direct judges to take up rape and POCSO cases on priority

Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh government has requested the Allahabad High Court to direct session and district judges across the state to take up the pending cases related to rape and POCSO Act on a priority basis.

“We have requested the registrar generals of the high courts to help us as due to Covid-19 some of the district courts were not open and we have more than 20,000 rape cases and about 40,000 POCSO cases pending. We want the process of pending trials to get expedited," additional chief secretary (home department), Awanish Awasthi told ET. A note shared by the state government said during Covid-19, 1,835 cases related to crime against women were disposed and 612 accused were punished.

According to the reply of the ministry of law and justice in Lok Sabha, almost 67,000 cases related to rape and POCSO Act were pending in Uttar Pradesh till March. This makes up for almost 28 per cent of the total of more than 2.4 lakh pending cases in the country related to sexual crimes. The state also had the highest number of such cases in the country.


In December last year, the state had announced the setting up of 218 fast-track courts after a spate of rape cases that came to a head with the burning of the Unnao rape victim to death by her accused.

Awasthi said while the said courts have been formed, the appointment of additional district judges by the HC had got stalled due to the pandemic.

Awasthi also said the state will hold an awareness campaign on women safety between October 17 and 25. The primary, secondary and higher education departments along with the technical and medical education departments as well as the women and child welfare department will be joining hands with the police for the same. Awasthi said the contours of how the campaign will be conducted are still being decided.