Mamata cabinet decides to set up 5 more fast track POCSO courts in Bengal
West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, last week, told the Legislative Assembly that the state had 88 fast track courts and 62 POCSO courts
The West Bengal cabinet of ministers on Tuesday decided to set up five more fast track courts only for cases filed under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, officials from Nabanna, the state secretariat, said.
The cabinet meeting was chaired by chief minister Mamata Banerjee on whose initiative the legislative assembly unanimously passed the Aparajita Woman and Child (West Bengal Criminal Laws Amendment) Bill, 2024, on September 3, weeks after the rape and murder of a 31-year-old post-graduate trainee doctor at a government hospital in Kolkata triggered mass protests.
During discussion on the bill, Banerjee told the Assembly that Bengal currently has 88 fast track courts and 62 POCSO courts.
“The chief minister said at the cabinet meeting that no minister should make any comment in public on the protests junior doctors are holding since the August 9 crime at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital. She said only she will make statements since she is in charge of both home and health departments,” a minister said on condition of anonymity.
The new bill, which governor C V Ananda Bose has sent to the President for her assent, has sought amendments to several sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) 2023 so that 10 or 20-year jail terms in rape and gangrape cases are replaced with death penalty or imprisonment for remaining life of the convict.
The bill also proposes amendments to various sections of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita 2023 and POCSO Act, 2012 to ensure time-bound trial, more fast-track courts and better infrastructure for law enforcement agencies.