Repeated Summoning Of Child Witnesses In POCSO Trials: Assessing Its Impact On Fair Trial Rights, Testimonial Integrity, And Judicial Process
- IJLLR Journal
- Jun 8
- 2 min read
Priyanka Thakur, Master of Laws (LL.M.), Faculty of Law, The ICFAI University, Baddi, Himachal Pradesh, India.
Dr. Legha Mamta, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Law, The ICFAI University, Baddi, Himachal Pradesh, India.
ABSTRACT
In the framework of the Indian penal system, testimony of child witnesses is at the convergence of evidence, judicial equity, and system structure. Adjudication reliability is an indicator of the child witness summons process determination. It impacts memory, confidence, and narrative integration. It is initiated as an inconvenience leading to summoning at irregular intervals. The Indian judicial system neglects the absence of child testimony and the absence of the judicial process determining the child witness evidence. This advocacy is focused on the interrelationship between the witness's competence and the legal system's vulnerability.
Analysis of Section 33 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (2012), Section 124 of the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023, Section 348 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, and the Supreme Court of India's rulings in the cases of P. Ramesh, Atma Ram, Mahender Chawla, Madhab Chandra Pradhan, and In Re: Alarming Rise in the Number of Reported Child Rape Incidents1 reflect the legal structure's process(s) for child witness testimony. This system requires child witness testimony to be recorded expeditiously to ensure complete testimony, with minimal need for testimony recall. In addition, the examination of child witnesses along with the iterative process of testimony recall results in discrepancies due to the delay, exhaustion, or courtroom apprehension. However, the discrepancies are misinterpreted as indicators of the child's unreliability or weak testimony. The backlog in POCSO courts and Fast Track Special Courts documents the delays attributable to the courts, reinforcing the primary concern and evidencing the structural basis for repetitive child witness testimony. The study found that process-sensitive adjudication value fair-trial precepts by assigning controls to judges on how to justify, less damaging, alternatives, in her respect crossexamination, and treating the child's dignity as a balance to evidential accuracy while still protecting child dignity.
Keywords: Child witness; POCSO; repeated summoning; witness recall; process-sensitive adjudication; fair trial; vulnerable witness procedure; Indian criminal justice
