Chennai: The Madras high court ruled that if there is an offence both under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act and under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, the Special Court under the Pocso Act alone shall have jurisdiction to exercise all powers including the power to remand the accused, take cognizance of the offences, either on a police report or on a private complaint and try the offender.
A division bench comprising Justices S.Nagamuthu (since retired) and P.N.Prakash gave the ruling while answering legal issues referred to them by the Chief Justice relating to jurisdiction and the power of criminal courts.
Originally, the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Dindigul, sought instructions from the high court whether judicial magistrates have the power to remand an accused involved in cases relating to offences under the Pocso Act and the SC & ST Act.
The high court issued a circular to the effect that an accused in connection with offences under the Pocso Act shall be produced only before the Judicial Magistrate having territorial jurisdiction. Subsequently, the additional sessions judge, Mahila Court, Tiruchirappalli sought instruction as to whether this circular should be treated as a general instruction to all courts in the state or confined only to Dindigul district. The Chief Justice directed this letter to be treated as a reference so as to settle legal issues in their entirety to maintain uniformity among all courts. Accordingly, the Chief Justice constituted this bench.
Directing the registry to withdraw the circular, the bench said that whenever any person was arrested for any offence under the Pocso Act and detained in custody and it appears that the investigation cannot be completed within 24 hours, the investigating officer shall immediately transmit the accused to the Special Court under the Pocso Act. If the accused cannot be produced within 24 hours before this court, the investigating officer may produce him before the nearest judicial magistrate who may remand the accused to custody for a term not exceeding 15 days and shall order the accused to be forwarded to the Special Court for further proceedings.
So far as the exclusive special courts and special courts under the SC & ST Act were concerned, the bench passed a similar order. However, if the act was an offence both under the POCSO Act and under the SC & ST Act, the special court under POCSO alone shall have the jurisdiction to exercise all powers, the bench added.
