The Patna High Court has issued notice on a Public Interest Litigation seeking protection of the identities of child survivors of sexual offences whose personal details are allegedly accessible through publicly available FIR portals in Bihar. The petition points to cases where an FIR is initially registered for offences other than those under POCSO and is uploaded online, but POCSO provisions are subsequently added during investigation.
It was asserted that there is no effective mechanism to automatically withdraw or redact such FIRs after POCSO sections are added and this may result in names, parentage, addresses, contact details and other identifying information of child survivors remaining publicly accessible.
The petitioner has relied on Supreme Court directions in Youth Bar Association of India v. Union of India, (2016) 9 SCC 473 and Nipun Saxena v. Union of India, (2019) 2 SCC 703, concerning restrictions on uploading FIRs relating to sensitive offences and protection of the identities of survivors of sexual offences.
The petition cites 18 illustrative cases from different districts of Bihar, registered between 2024 and 2026, where POCSO provisions were added after the initial registration of the FIR. The petitioner has sought, among other measures, a time-bound audit of FIRs, mandatory classification of POCSO FIRs as “sensitive”, automatic withdrawal or redaction when POCSO sections are subsequently added, police guidelines and periodic compliance reports.
A Division Bench of Chief Justice V. Kameswar Rao and Justice Partha Sarthy has directed the respondents to file their counter-affidavit within three weeks, with two weeks thereafter for rejoinder, and re-notified the matter for October 26, 2026.
