HYDERABAD: Hyderabad has seen a surge in number of POCSO convictions at its Bharosa centres. When the judgements are pronounced, all of these cases are referred to the District Legal Service Authority (DLSA) for ‘suitable compensation’, however it has come to light that the competent body for cases within the Hyderabad jurisdiction actually come under the Metropolitan Legal Services Authority (MLSA) has been lying defunct with no appointments made for its position of Secretary, leaving rape survivors hapless.

The result? At least eight applications seeking compensations are pending with the MLSA, four of them being rape cases. According to sources, in 2017-18 the MLSA received four petitions for compensating victims of rape and child sexual assault. Four other petitions seeking compensation under Telangana’s victim compensation scheme of 2015 have also landed at the MLSA.

According to NALSA, all victims of rape and sexual assault can avail compensations between Rs 5 lakh and Rs 7 lakh.

This can be availed partly at the stage of FIR itself if the victim submits all requisite documents within few weeks of the incident. This would be analysed by the MLSA in Hyderabad or DLSA in other districts by a judge who sits in the position of Secretary. Once the documents are vetted and the compensation amount decided, the documents are referred to the TLSA for a second round of checking.

The procedure has gone onto fetch compensation of upto Rs 3 lakhs for two acid attack victims in the city. In fact, unlike other districts, Hyderabad has two DLSAs for civil and criminal cases to avoid overload. However for POCSO cases the competent authority is MLSA which has no Secretary, leaving the many rape and POCSO victims helpless. Even when an interim secretary was appointed, petitions have not moved. It must be noted that POCSO victims of both genders are entitled to compensation by Women Development and Child Welfare via the district collector, however no such schemes are available for survivors above 18 years of age.