The Aurangabad bench of Bombay High Court on December 19 directed the Maharashtra government to frame guidelines for conducting test identification parades (TI parades) in cases under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses (POCSO) Act. A test identification parade is to test the witness’s capability to identify, from among several persons, an unknown person whom the witness has seen in the context of an offence. The state government was instructed to create a standard operating procedure (SOP) to protect the victim’s information while taking part in the TI parade by a division bench of Justices Vibha Kankanwadi and Abhay Waghwase.

“We direct the state to develop appropriate guidelines to be followed when organizing TI parades in cases falling under the purview of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012, and to further recommend Standard Operating Procedure to be adopted, considering the victim’s confidentiality; additionally, we recommend that appropriate precautions be taken when forcing victims to participate in TI parades in order to identify perpetrators, along with the necessary infrastructure set up for the same,” the judge ruled. The person who was found guilty in 2018 of raping a young girl and given a life sentence in 2019 was appealing to the court.

The Court was astonished to note from the evidence that a minor victim of 6 years was made to appear in jail premises in order to identify the culprit amongst a line of dummies and she was asked to touch the perpetrator. The Court expressed serious concern at the disregard shown by the special executive magistrate for not complying with the procedure stipulated under the POCSO Act to take precautions to avoid confrontation between the accused and victim.

The Court also noted that medical experts and investigators had failed to take due care to follow guidelines for collection, preservation and documentation of evidence, including the doctor who failed to distinctly seal the biological evidence samples.

“We have noticed that in spite of directions issued by the Apex Court time and again regarding meticulous compliance of Standard Operating Procedure to be adopted during the collection of biological and non-biological evidence and its preservation to avoid its degradation and further maintain its integrity, the stakeholders, like medical experts, who conducted physical examinations of both the victim and accused and retrieved samples, as well as the police machinery and the forensic experts, have shown utter disregard for the procedure contemplated and spelled out in the form of guidelines,” the Court observed.

It directed the District Legal Services Authority to inquire into the current status of the victim and check whether she has received adequate compensation. It also directed the government to organise periodic sensitization programmes for all the stakeholders including the police, medical experts, forensic experts, and prosecutors.

“We take this opportunity to bring it to the notice of the State as well as prosecution that, all stakeholders like police, medical experts, forensic experts and even prosecutors to be sensitive to the need of proper collection, sampling, preservation and safe custody to rule out possibility of diminishing and/or degrading the quality of evidence. Such authorities need to keep themselves well informed and updated on the guidelines issued by Health Ministry/Home Ministry,” the bench ordered.

The Bombay High Court directs the state to frame guidelines for test identification parades in POCSO cases.