A bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice V K Rao said the issue is important, as “nothing happens after the accused is acquitted, and by the time an appeal comes before the court, the accused is no more or so”. The Delhi High Court Thursday sought response of the Delhi government and police on a plea seeking direction to constitute a panel to review the child sexual abuse cases where the accused have been acquitted, for the purpose of filing an appeal. A bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice V K Rao said the issue is important, as “nothing happens after the accused is acquitted, and by the time an appeal comes before the court, the accused is no more or so”. “You (Delhi government and police) will also find that there is neither any data available about the status of appeal in these cases, nor there is any system of monitoring if the appeals are being recommended by the prosecutors and are actually being filed,” the bench remarked. It asked the government and police to file their replies in two weeks and listed the matter on October 22 for further hearing. The court’s observations and direction came during hearing of an application filed by NGO Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA) in a pending petition which highlighted the backlog of cases and other issues in the effective implementation of the POCSO Act. The petition also highlighted lack of implementation of Witness Protection Scheme in Delhi, to which, member secretary, Delhi State Legal Services Authority (DSLSA), Sanjeev Jain, informed the court that they have prepared flyers to disseminate the scheme amongst general public.