For decades, India's criminal justice system carried the stigma of delay, a system that was mocked for "tareek pe tareek" and feared by victims for its slow grind. But in 2025, a quiet but significant shift took place in one of the country's most sensitive areas of law. For the first time since the enactment of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, or POCSO, India disposed of more child sexual abuse cases in a year than it registered.
India had registered 80,320 fresh POCSO cases in 2025, while courts disposed of 87,754 cases—a disposal rate of 109 per cent. According to a new report titled 'Pendency to Protection: Achieving the Tipping Point to Justice for Child Victims of Sexual Abuse', the study has been done by the Centre for Legal Action and Behaviour Change (C-LAB) for Children-an initiative of India Child Protection-and is based on data drawn from the National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG), National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), and parliamentary responses.
The numbers mark a critical inflexion point. Until recently, POCSO pendency had grown relentlessly, touching 2.62 lakh cases by 2023. In contrast, 2025 appears to be the year when the system started doing more than merely managing arrears. "This is the tipping point where the justice system starts reducing backlog instead of accumulating it," the report notes.
Importantly, this is not a national average masking regional stagnation. As many as 24 states and Union Territories recorded disposal rates exceeding 100 per cent, meaning they cleared not only the cases filed in 2025 but also a portion of older cases. Seven states and UTs crossed a disposal rate of 150 per cent, while another seven fell in the 121–150 per cent bracket. Ten more hovered between 100 and 120 per cent.
Yet the data also reveals stark fault lines beneath this surface of success.
Meaningful progress?
Nearly half of all pending POCSO cases have remained pending for over two years, a delay that is especially destructive in cases involving child victims. More worrisome still, the long-term pendency is concentrated in a few states. Uttar Pradesh accounts for 37 per cent of all cases pending over five years. Maharashtra contributes another 24 per cent, and West Bengal 11 per cent. Put together, these three states account for nearly three-fourths of the country's longest-pending POCSO cases.
The report, therefore, observes that these figures reflect cases that entered the system several years ago but have not seen meaningful progress, systemic bottlenecks that arise early in the life cycle of a case, from investigation delays to overburdened courts and frequent adjournments.
Besides pendency, conviction rates remain wildly variable across states, raising questions of trial quality, prosecutorial preparedness, and survivor support. Faster disposal, the report warns, is not to be at the cost of justice.
The most ambitious recommendation from the study is to set up 600 additional e-POCSO courts across the country. Estimated to cost Rs 1,977 crore over four years, the report says that the entire backlog of POCSO cases can be cleared within that period. It suggests that financing can be provided from the Nirbhaya Fund, specifically set up for strengthening institutional responses to crimes against women and children.
Locating the data in the broader context of justice and child rights, Purujit Praharaj, Director (Research) at India Child Protection, termed the moment pivotal. "India is now at a tipping point in its response to child sexual abuse. When the system begins to dispose of more POCSO cases than it registers, it moves from intent to impact. Our research consistently shows that prolonged delays intensify trauma for child survivors," he said, underlining the fact that timely justice is not a mere procedural luxury but a psychological necessity.
For a justice system so long defined by delay, the 2025 figures offer something rare: cautious optimism supported by data.
