When a special POCSO court in Hyderabad sentenced a gymnastics and karate coach to 20 years of rigorous imprisonment on June 17 for sexually assaulting a three-and-a-half-year-old girl inside a school's premises, it also highlighted another disturbing reality: it took six years for the child survivor to get justice.
The victim, a student of a private school in Miyapur, was sexually assaulted on June 27, 2019. The accused, Kura Kiran Sai, was convicted by the Special Court for Trial and Disposal of Rape and POCSO Act cases after a trial that stretched for six years, despite the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act being enacted to ensure speedy investigation and trial.
The case is far from an exception.
Official Telangana Police data accessed by The Hindu shows that more than half of all POCSO cases registered in the State over the past decade are yet to reach a verdict, exposing a criminal justice system struggling under mounting pendency despite statutory provisions for speedy trials.
Between January 1, 2016 and June 30, 2026, Telangana registered 31,117 cases under the POCSO Act. Of these 16,348 cases, or 52.54%, remain pending trial, while another 2,863 cases (9.20%) are still under investigation. Legal experts say the backlog stems largely from the absence of exclusive POCSO courts and judicial officers dedicated solely to trying child sexual abuse cases.
“Judges assigned to hear POCSO matters simultaneously handle a range of criminal and civil cases, leaving limited time for day-to-day hearings. Rather than merely designating existing judicial officers to hear POCSO cases, the judiciary should establish dedicated Special Courts with judges exclusively tasked with trying offences under the Act,” said Hyderabad-based advocate Immaneni Rama Rao.
Advocate P.V. Krishnamachary seconded. “If judicial officers were dealing exclusively with POCSO matters, disposal would have been much faster and child survivors would receive closure much earlier,” he said.
The POCSO Act, enacted in 2012, mandates the establishment of Special Courts to ensure speedy trials in cases involving child sexual abuse. Separately, the Department of Justice launched the Centrally Sponsored Scheme for Fast Track Special Courts in October 2019 following the enactment of the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2018, sanctioning 1,023 Fast Track Special Courts across the country, including 389 Exclusive POCSO Courts, to expedite the trial of rape and POCSO cases.
The data also reflects the limited number of convictions secured over the past decade. Of the total cases, only 1,053 cases, or 3.41%, have ended in conviction. Overall, 11,043 cases have otherwise been disposed of by courts, while another 831 cases were disposed by the police following investigation.
Police may close a POCSO case only after concluding during investigation that no offence was committed or that there is insufficient evidence to prosecute, following which a closure or cancellation report is filed before the court instead of a chargesheet.
According to the Telangana Women Safety Wing, a significant number of cases end in acquittals which result from insufficient evidence, hostile witnesses, contradictory statements by victims or key witnesses, delay in reporting the offence, failure to establish the victim’s age, defective investigation, procedural lapses, lack of medical or forensic corroboration where required, inability to establish the identity of the accused beyond reasonable doubt, false implication, and consent-related issues in cases involving older adolescents.
Krishnamachary said false complaints, many of which eventually end in compromise, also consume valuable judicial time and delay genuine prosecutions involving child survivors.
He said convictions are generally secured more quickly in cases involving very young children because the presumption is stronger, medical evidence is often clearer and the victim’s inability to consent or resist is self-evident. In cases involving older adolescents, however, investigations require stronger corroborative evidence, including forensic, electronic and medical material, as physical findings alone may not conclusively establish sexual assault.
According to Telangana Women Safety Wing Director General Charu Sinha, the police classify cases involving adolescents aged between 16 and 18 years as “technical cases”, while “genuine” POCSO cases are categorised as “non-technical”. Data showed that of the 21,795 POCSO cases registered between October 2022 and to date, 12,463 cases (57.18%) fell under the technical category, while the remaining 9,332 cases (42.82%) were categorised as non-technical.
In January 2026, the Supreme Court urged the Union Government to consider introducing a “Romeo and Juliet” clause to exempt genuine consensual relationships between adolescents close in age from criminal prosecution, while retaining stringent punishment for predatory sexual offences against children.
While legal experts believe such an amendment would reduce the burden on investigators and courts and allow them to focus on genuine child sexual abuse cases, police officials contend that introducing such an exception could create fresh legal and investigative complexities.
ALSO WATCH When consent becomes a crime: How POCSO is penalising teen romance in India
“In many cases, police are not swift enough in collecting evidence, recording statements or promptly registering FIRs. In rural areas, incidents are often hushed up because of social stigma, and complaints surface only after intervention by social organisations. Such delays create critical gaps in evidence and ultimately weaken prosecution,” Rama Rao said.
Published - July 11, 2026 06:57 am IST