T logs threefold jump in conviction rate of rape & Pocso cases | Hyderabad News

Hyderabad: Fast track special courts (FTSCs), which try cases of rape and offences under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act, have registered a sharp rise (threefold) in conviction rate in Telangana in 2025, even as the state continues to trail well behind the country’s best-performing states, according to data placed before the Rajya Sabha by the ministry of law and justice on Aug 13.The state’s average conviction rate in these courts climbed to 20.21% in 2025, up from 7.00% in 2024 and 7.12% in 2023, marking a near-threefold jump over three years.Despite this improvement, the state’s 2025 figure remained lower than several other states, including Nagaland, which recorded the country’s highest conviction rate at 80%, followed by Mizoram at 58.50%, Manipur at 64.70%, and Meghalaya at 52.78%.Tamil Nadu (31.35%), Punjab (23%) and Madhya Pradesh (23.32%) also outperformed Telangana in 2025, while states such as Andhra Pradesh (5.55%), Jammu & Kashmir (4.44%) and Karnataka (7.04%) recorded lower rates than Telangana.On infrastructure, Telangana has 36 functional FTSCs, including exclusive POCSO courts, as on June 30, 2026, with 8,806 cases pending before them.The state, however, had no conventional fast track courts (FTCs) functioning, unlike states such as Uttar Pradesh, which alone accounted for 373 of the 884 FTCs functioning nationwide, with over 13.7 lakh pending cases.At the national level, 779 FTSCs, including 399 exclusive Pocso courts, were functional across 29 states and Union Territories, with a combined pendency of over 25.6 lakh cases as on June 30, 2026.FTCs are set up by sates and Union Territories in consultation with the concerned high courts, based on their own requirements and resources, with no central assistance extended for their establishment.FTSCs, on the other hand, operate under a centrally-sponsored scheme launched in Oct 2019.Filling vacancies of judicial officers and special public prosecutors in these courts remains the responsibility of the respective state and Union Territory govts, in line with the constitutional framework governing appointments to the subordinate judiciary.