Supreme Court to hold two-day national programme on POCSO Act today

The Supreme Court Committee on Juvenile Justice is organising a two-day national programme on Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act from Saturday.

The national consultation on POCSO Act of 2012 is being organised in association with Unicef and its inaugural session would be attended by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud, and the Minister for Women and Child Development, Smriti Zubin Irani, the Supreme Court said in a press statement.

Besides the CJI and the Union minister, Justice S Ravindra Bhat, the Chairperson of the Supreme Court JJC, and other apex court judges and judges of high courts, and Cynthia McCaffery, a Unicef India representative, will also take part in the programme, the statement said.

"Marking 10 years since POCSO came into force, the consultation will feature the participation of key stakeholders from the Government of India, law enforcement, senior members of the judiciary, state governments, and civil society," it said.

It is the seventh such consultation under the Supreme Court Committee on various child protection issues, which brings to a conclusion a series of similar state-level consultations held throughout the country, it said.

The inaugural session will be followed by technical sessions covering various facets of POCSO, ranging from prevention, rehabilitation and reintegration of survivors to child-friendly courts, investigation procedures, and capacity building to sharing of good practices, among others, it added.

The consultation will come to a close on Sunday with reflections from the Government of India, Supreme Court, and National Council for the Protection of Child Rights and Unicef, it added.