TN Government to set guidelines for child witnesses for horrible crimes after intervention of Madras High Court

Efforts of Madras’s Supreme Court In order to protect the mental health and the psychological well-being of children who witness horrible crimes, the Tamil Nadu government agrees to develop a dedicated framework to tackle such witnesses of children.

A division bench consisting of Justices, Mrs. Ramesh and V. Lakshminarayanan, was disturbed to come across an appeal submitted by the 27-year-old P. Saravanakumar, who had killed his older sister in the presence of her eight-year-old daughter, causing a large amount of mental trauma for the child.

A sessieshof in Coimbatore had convicted the appellant and sentenced him to life imprisonment on the basis of the evidence that was led by the child witness, who brutally seen her mother killing her mother before she fell apart her body.

The judges agreed with senior adviser Abudu Kumar Rajaratinam, who represented the appellant that although there were different guidelines to deal with child victims of serious crimes, there were none with regard to the measures that had to be taken to protect the interests of child witnesses against such crimes.

HC intervenes

The Bank asked the public public by the public prosecutor (SPP) Hasan Mohamed Jinnah and other law officers to give their personal attention to the case and make an impression on government officials to come up with a framework for counseling and all other help that is needed for the well -being of such witnessing children.

Accordingly, the SPP returned with a report from the office of the director -general police/head of the police (DGP/HOPF), who stated that minor children were admitted as witnesses in no fewer than 161 criminal cases registered by the police between January 2020 and July 2025.

The court was also told that Minister of the Interior Dheeraj Kumar was chairman of a meeting with secretary of Social Welfare Muralidharan, police inspector (crime against women and children) A. Kayalvizhi, Institute for Mental Health Director M. MAHAAPPAN, additional secretary of additional secretary.

The meeting held in the secretariat on 20 August 2025 was attended by a large number of other officials of school education, health and family welfare and other departments. Dr. Malaippan gave a presentation about the Guidelines of the United Nations with regard to child witnesses to serious crimes.

Finally, it was decided to form an interdepartmental committee that spend civil servants of rights, police, school education, child welfare and health departments for the preparation of a framework with detailed guidelines with regard to the role and responsibility of each department in protecting child witnesses.

Among other things, the inter-department committee was asked “to propose guidelines for the police, teachers, pediatricians and frontlining professionals for early identification of children in vulnerable situations and to report behavioral changes and report worries.”

A copy of the minutes of the meeting, submitted before the court on Friday (August 22, 2025), also stated: “Media guidelines must be developed to prevent secondary trauma in children involved in sensitive legal affairs. The framework will build on existing guidelines by the United Nations, orders for the witness and tuition lines of the witness and witness and the witness protection and the witness protection and the witness protection and the witness protection and the witness protection, the witness and the witness and the witness protection, the witness and the witness and the witness -to -the -witness and the witness -to -the -witness and the witness -and -protected lines of the witness and the witness and the witness of the witness and the witness of witnesses and the witness and the witness of the witness and the witness of witnesses Pocso as jumping.

After reading the minutes and the appreciation of the interest that the State has shown in the case, the judges decided to hear the next case on August 29, 2025.