The Delhi High Court today asked the Centre to consider according approval to the city government for appointing special public prosecutors in each special court set up to handle sexual offence cases against children.
"It has been submitted that as Delhi is not a state in all sense so it needs sanction from the Centre for appointing special public prosecutors," a bench of Acting Chief Justice B D Ahmed and Justice Siddharth Mridul said.
"Additional Solicitor General Rajeeve Mehra is present in court and assures this court that action will be taken expeditiously on the plea of Delhi governmment... We hope that it can be done within three weeks," it said.
The bench has now fixed the PIL, filed by lawyer G K Bansal, for hearing on April 16.
Earlier, the court had asked the Delhi government to take requisite permission from the Centre and to complete the process of appointing special public prosecutors (SPPs) within three months.
The SPPs would handle cases under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
The PIL has said that there are around 762 cases under the POCSO Act pending in the various district courts here.
Delhi government had earlier said that since the courts of additional sessions judges have been deemed as special courts for POCSO cases, there was no need for setting up exclusive courts.
In May, the court had directed the government to file an action taken report on the appointment of prosecutors, following Bansal's PIL on the functioning of POCSO courts.
