Revise draft rules under juvenile justice act: HC

A Division Bench, comprising Justices P K Misra and K Chandru, gave the direction on three different petitions filed by social activists and self-help groups.     

While the first petition sought legal action on the perpetrators of violence against children, who were produced before the Child Welfare Committee, the second sought penal action against police officers, responsible for detaining a juvenile in the police station.    

The third sought a direction to a Judicial Magistrate to transfer four juveniles, remanded to judicial custody and to be kept in the Central Prison, to the Juvenile Justice Board.     

"Though the three writ petitions arose in three different contexts, our focus is on the need to frame proper rules under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000 as amended by the Central Act 33 of 2006,"the Bench said.     

One of the petitioners presented the case of a 13-year-old girl, whose father sexually harassed her and forced her to watch pornographic pictures at an internet parlour for over seven years.     

The petitioner brought to the Court's notice, certain lacunae in the existing laws pertaining to juvenile justice.