POCSO Cases India: For the first time, India has disposed of more POCSO cases in a year than were registered, marking a historic shift in the country’s long battle with judicial backlog. In 2025, 80,320 child sexual abuse cases were filed while 87,754 were disposed of, achieving a disposal rate of 109 percent, according to report “Pendency to Protection: Achieving the Tipping Point to Justice for Child Victims of Sexual Abuse” by Centre for Legal Action and Behaviour Change (C-LAB) for Children, an initiative by India Child Protection. Notably, 24 states also recorded disposal rates above 100 percent. The report recommends setting up 600 additional e-POCSO courts to end the entire backlog of Protection of Children from Sexual Abuse (POCSO) cases within four years.

Backlog of POCSO Cases

Often tarnished by the ‘tareek pe tareek’ image, India’s backlog of POCSO cases stood at 2,62,089 until 2023. But with this new shift when the disposals surpassed registrations, the report states that the country has reached the tipping point “where the justice system begins to move from managing backlog to actively reducing it.” The report recommends allocating INR 1977 crore for additional 600 e-POCSO courts for a period of four years to completely end pendency, for which Nirbhaya Fund can be utilized as well.

The report further highlights a few worrying gaps such as nearly half of pending cases remain unresolved for over two years, conviction rates continue to fluctuate, and there exist inter-state disparities. For instance, Uttar Pradesh alone accounts for 37 percent of all cases pending beyond five years, making it the single largest contributor to long-term pendency. This is followed by Maharashtra (24%), and West Bengal (11%). Together, these three states account for nearly three-fourths of all cases pending for more than five years.

Highlights of Purujit Praharaj, Director (Research), India Child Protection

Highlighting the broader implications of the data in a wider justice context, Purujit Praharaj, Director (Research), India Child Protection, said, “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. Sustaining this momentum is essential if timely, child-centred justice is to become the norm rather than the exception.” India Child Protection is partner of Just Rights for Children which is the largest network of NGOs with over 250 NGO partners working in 451 districts across the country for child protection and child rights.

Among states, seven states and Union Territories logged a disposal rate of over 150 percent, other seven have a disposal rate between 121-150 percent while 10 states achieved a disposal rate between 100-120 percent. These 24 states, therefore, are not only disposing of cases registered in 2025 but also managed to clear some of the previous years’ cases.

These figures reflect cases that entered the system several years ago but have not seen meaningful progress. “This suggests that pendency begins to accumulate early in the lifecycle of a case and that the system faces challenges in moving cases forward within the expected time frame,” the report said.

The report also recommends maintaining a year-on-year disposal rate of over 100 percent in every state/UT, providing technical and administrative support to state judiciaries lagging behind and meticulous monitoring of conviction and acquittal rates. The report also recommends the use of AI-powered legal research tools and document management systems to facilitate efficient case analysis and document retrieval.

The report is based on the data (as of 2nd December, 2025) drawn and analysed from National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG), National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) and Lok Sabha questions and answers.