Author of POCSO judgment was a Deputy Director at Judicial Academy: Justice Madan Lokur

The Bombay High Court judge who authored the controversial judgment acquitting a person of sexual assault under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act for an absence of "skin to skin" contact" was a Deputy Director at Judicial Academy, former Supreme Court judge Justice Madan B Lokur highlighted on Thursday. .Justice Lokur observed that while judicial academies are expected to impart judicial training and sensitisation, such judgments beg the question of what "judicial academies are doing?"."... you have judicial academies. What are the judicial academies doing? The Attorney General had said that all the judges have to undergo a course in gender sensitisation. He is right. But shouldn’t the judicial academies be doing that? Incidentally, the Judge you are talking about from the Bombay High Court, she was a deputy director in the Maharashtra Judicial Academy. Now I wonder what kind of judicial education she imparted," Justice Lokur did not mince his words..The former Supreme Court Judge was responding a question raised in relation to today's order denying comedian Munawar Faruqui bail and the recent Bombay High Court Judgment on the POCSO Act. .Focusing his answer on the Bombay High Court judgment, Justice Lokur remarked, "All I can say is that these decisions, and there are some others also, I believe the same judge has given another judgment (reported) today which is as bad, if not worse.".This is where social audits can play a vital role, he went on to add."I’ve had one thousand conferences in some judicial academy for which I have spent 1 crore rupees. What is the result of that? How many people have actually benefitted? We don’t know. That’s where social audits come in", Justice Lokur said..In this respect, he also spoke on how the Supreme Court Legal Services Committee was found to be lacking in its role, after a social audit was conducted. ."You will not believe it, but SLPs which were asked for by persons who are in custody, they wrote to the Supreme Court Legal Services Committee in 2004-2005 (saying) 'please file an SLP on my behalf'. Not filed till 2018. 14 years, 13 years, 12 years. Life imprisonment is 14 years in some States. So these guys have undergone life imprisonment, but SLP not filed. Many of them said, ‘forget it, we’ve engaged a private lawyer'", Justice Lokur recounted.."So social audits are very important. Transparency, of course is very important. And that transparency can only come with social audits", Justice Lokur underscored. .He was delivering special address at the launch of the 2nd edition of India Justice Report by Tata Trusts ..The Bombay High Court had on January 19 ruled that the act of pressing the breast of a child aged 12 years without removing her top will not fall within the definition of ‘sexual assault’ under Section 7 of POCSO Act. The judgment was delivered by Justice Pushpa V Ganediwala..This judgment was stayed by the Supreme Court on January 27. .The same judge had, on January 15, acquitted another accused under POCSO ruling that act of holding hands of a minor or the zip of the pants of the accused being open at the relevant time, does not amount to sexual assault. .Holding hands of victim or open pant zip of accused will not amount to sexual assault under POCSO Act: Bombay High Court .Maja Daruwala, Chief Editor of the Report termed the Bombay High Court POCSO judgment as an "absolutely uninformed and biased judgment of someone who is putting forward her point of view rather than what is Constitutionally required to be said in a court of law."."How does that happen? It happens because nobody has paid attention to her training, or overseen her as she climbed the ladder. When she comes down to it she doesn't have the tools required except to provide a judgment of what she sees as being what should be," Daruwala said..Daruwala added that the blueprint for the way forward should be dynamic, aimed to fix the low-hanging fruit and create tension within the system..The system is now too cozy, because there is very little accountability when there is a policeman, judge or prison officer who is wrong, she added..Arghya Sengupta, Research Director at think tank VIDHI, which has also collaborated in preparing the India Justice Report, observed that judgments such as the POCSO judgment should not be viewed as representative of the system. ."Whenever there is a judgment of this kind as was given in Munawar Faruqui’s case or with the Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court, it is disillusioning for everybody. But I think what the India Justice Report tries to do is to try to say that one judgment is not representative of the whole justice system. We need to see the data, try and see where systemically this can be improved."