Surinder S Rathi, an officer of Delhi Higher Judicial Services has been appointed as an Officer on Special Duty-cum-Registrar to the Hon’ble Chief Justice Delhi High Court, w.e.f. July 1 vide notification dated 30.06.2020 on deputation basis for a period of One year.
Prior to his appointment Mr. Rathi was serving as Registrar in the Supreme Court of India. He also worked as a Director of NALSA before his appointment to the Registrar of Supreme Court. He also worked as a Guardian Judge and has a keen interest in Painting, Photography and Web Designing.
On many previous occasions he has been appointed as an ‘Officer of the Court’ to assist Courts in matters related to POCSO etc. In one of the matters, the Supreme Court had appointed him to gather data on the status of cases pending under POCSO, the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, and how states have fared in handling cases. The Supreme Court bench headed by the then Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi had took note of the report submitted by Mr Rathi and said the POCSO Act provides that the trials in cases of sexual offences against children have to be completed within a year. The Case titled as “In-re Alarming Rise in The Number of Reported Child Rape Incidents”. Mr Rathi also submitted the Draft Scheme for compensation to the Victims.
Agreeing with the Report of Registrar Mr Rathi, the court had said, “it appears that one major reason for the inability of the stake holders to meet the deadline stipulated under the Act is lack of awareness and lack of dedication in completing investigation, etc. within the time frame stipulated and also inadequacy of the number of courts which has resulted in cases remaining pending beyond the period mandated for completion of trial under the Act.”
In one of the matter before the Supreme Court wherein the Court had tagged several petitions related to the Safety and Security of women. Mr. Rathi had submitted the report on ‘NALSA’s Compensation Scheme for Sexual Assault & Acid Attack Victims’ prepared by him while he was serving as Director of NALSA in consultation with the Union Government.
The Report was approved by the Supreme Court bench presided by then Justice Madan B Lokur and Justice Deepak Gupta and they had ordered that the scheme should be implemented in all states and union territories.
Read the notification here;
New-doc-30-Jun-2020-India Legal Bureau