India, June 23 -- The Supreme Court last month disposed of a suo motu public interest petition it had initiated in 2019 to address the alarming rise in child rape cases across the country -- only for another bench to revive a key unresolved aspect of the same matter barely a week later, providing a telling commentary on institutional memory and follow-through.

The petition, registered as "In Re: Alarming Rise in the Number of Reported Child Rape Incidents", was formally closed on May 15 by a bench led by Justice Bela M Trivedi, as one of her last orders before retiring. Justice Trivedi retired on June 9 but her last working day was May 16, owing to an overseas trip

But on May 23, another bench led by Justice BV Nagarathna admitted a new...