The Karnataka High Court on Monday criticised the “culture of repeated adjournments” in criminal trials, observing that a 2014 case involving the alleged sexual assault of a six-year-old girl at a Bengaluru school was still pending after 12 years.

Describing the delay as “shocking”, Justice M Nagaprasanna noted in a July 3 order that Section 35(2) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act requires trials under the law to be completed within one year of a court taking cognisance of the offence.

The judge said that the victim could not be compelled to endlessly relive the trauma “because the criminal justice system has surrendered to the culture of adjournments”.

“Every unnecessary adjournment compounds the original injury and converts the process itself into an instrument of oppression,” the court said. “The Supreme Court has repeatedly deprecated this unhealthy culture of mechanical adjournments and has warned that such acts of adjournments ultimately become a silent accomplice to miscarriage of justice.”

It directed a special court to to complete the trial within eight weeks.

The case pertains from the alleged sexual assault of the six-year-old girl at a Bengaluru school in 2014. The chargesheet was filed under sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Pocso Act pertaining to rape.

Written by Anamika Pathak. Edited by Tanya Shrivastava.