Criminal law, court architecture, and the space of justice: Stakeholder perceptions of ‘special’ courts used in child sexual abuse trials in India

This paper focuses on the stakeholder perceptions of the legal reform brought to improve the trial experience of the child victims of sexual abuse in India through a special legislation - the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act 2012 (POCSO). The law focuses on providing a child-friendly trial space with the help of purposely built customized ‘special’ courts. Several questions, thus, arise: what do POCSO special courts look like? How do they operate? Do these courts provide the child-friendly trial space required by the POCSO law? I examine the materialities of the special courts that have bearing on the nature and function of criminal trial space, and thereby on child witnesses, by analysing the stakeholders’ perceptions and experiences of using these courts. I also examine court architecture, the use of paintings and technology, and how they organise courtroom narratives and interactions between courtroom actors during child sexual abuse (CSA) trials. It is based on in-depth semi-structured interviews with stakeholders, i.e., legal professionals such as judges, defence lawyers, public prosecutors, as well as support persons, and observation of POCSO special courts and trials. As the stakeholders identified, the geography of the trial has significant implications for access to justice for child victims during the trial. Findings suggest severe disparity within the country in terms of implementation of the reform. The stakeholders believe that reforms such as changes to courtroom design (e.g., establishing a vulnerable witness deposition room (VWDR) or the use of a video link for trial) have improved child witnesses’ experiences, but also highlight that such reforms will remain superficial if other factors such as the socio-legal culture around the adversarial trial and CSA, and stakeholder training, do not employ a trauma-informed care approach.