From now on, only female magistrates will record statements of female and child victims of rape and sexual harassment, a circular issued by the Supreme Court (SC) administration today read.

The circular says that the chief judicial magistrates and chief metropolitan magistrates across the country have to assign female magistrates to serve this purpose.

Supreme Court Registrar General Dr Md Zakir Hossain issued the circular as per instruction of Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain, the order reads.

The circular said, female magistrates will record the statements of those victims for the interest of fair investigation and justice in the cases filed for rape and sexual harassment incidents.

In the circular, the SC registrar general said there is a provision in Women and Children Repression Prevention Act-2000 for recording statements from the victims in such cases.

“It has been noticed that some male magistrates have recorded statements from female and child victims in some cases and therefore the victims felt confused and hesitated to place their statements to the male persons,” the circular read.

To avoid such situation, a female magistrate is needed to record the statements from the victims so that they can narrate their facts to the female magistrates without any hesitation, the SC said in the circular.