The Supreme Court has taken note of the alarming rise in the number of rape incidents against children and said it will pass directions to ensure a concerted and clear national response against such acts.

According to reports, A bench, headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, said it has decided to take suo motu cognisance of various reports of newspapers and portals on rising incidents of child rape.

The bench appointed senior advocate V Giri as amicus curiae and asked him to assist it in framing guidelines on the kind of directions that can be issued to states on infrastructure and video-recording of the proceedings.

The court said that in the first six months of the current year, 24,000 cases of child rape have come to light and 12,000 cases are still under investigation and the trial has not commenced in 50% of the cases. It noted that the trial has ended only in 900 cases.

The bench directed the apex court registry to register the case as a writ petition titled as “In-re Alarming Rise in The Number of Reported Child Rape Incidents” and posted it on Monday for issuance of directions.