Mangaluru:  A special court to exclusively handle cases under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act began functioning in the city on Thursday.

The special court is one of the 17 such courts set up in different districts of Karnataka as per the directive of the Supreme Court.

The apex court had in 2019 ordered that special POCSO courts should be set up in all districts if more than 100 cases under the Act are pending disposal.

The POCSO court was opened in the premises of the district courts complex by the special court judge Savitri V Bhat.

District chief sessions judge Kadlur Satyanarayana Acharya and vice president of bar association H R Raghavendra were present.

According to sources, a total of 185 POCSO cases are pending trial in Dakshina Kannada district, sources said.

The court has been set up in a child-friendly atmosphere with paintings and pictures on walls to prepare the victims mentally during the hearing in harassment cases.

 

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Chennai (PTI): Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday said the opposition parties defeated the delimitation bill in the Parliament on Friday to defend the "idea of India."

Addressing a poll rally at Ponneri here, he said the BJP-led government at the Centre brought a new bill on April 16, and said they were trying to pass the women's bill, which he said was passed in 2023.

"In the so-called Women's Bill, delimitation was hidden. The idea was to reduce Tamil Nadu's representation in the Union of India... the delimitation move by BJP was to weaken the strength of southern states, small states, north eastern states," he alleged.

"We defeated in Parliament, a bill in which delimitation was hidden; we defeated it to defend the idea of India."

Rahul added that India that is Bharat, is a union of states, and every single state should have a voice, be free to express itself, and protect its tradition.