New Delhi, May 15 -- The Supreme Court on Thursday has directed the Central government and all state governments to set up special courts to try POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) cases on a top-priority basis.

A bench comprising Justice Bela M Trivedi and Justice Prasanna B Varale observed that the delay in the completion of trials under the POCSO Act is primarily due to the shortage of exclusive POCSO courts across the country.

"Because of the inadequacy of the number of exclusive Courts for the POCSO cases, the said timelines mandated in the Act for completion of the trials are not being maintained," the bench noted in its judgement.

The top court directed the Central and state governments to take urgent steps to se...