HC direction on Juvenile Justice Boards

A high court bench comprising Chief Justice M Y Eqbal and Justice T S Sivagnanam passed the order on PILs seeking a direction to authorities to incorporate amendments to the Tamil Nadu Juvenile (Care and Protection of Children) (Amendment) Act, 2006 by considering the citizens draft rules after placing them in public domain.

The PILs filed by an NGO named Human Rights Advocacy and Research foundation and one A Narayanan, also sought constitution of JJBs with adequate infrastructure and manpower in all the districts of the state at the earliest.

Posting the petitions for next hearing after four weeks, the bench expressed hope that the JJBs would start functioning soon and if adequate infrastructure was not available, it should be provided by the government.

When the matter came up, the government pleader produced a compilation of various government orders, issued by Social Welfare and Nutritious Meal Programme Department this May for setting up JJBs in all the districts.

In an additional counter-affidavit, the state government said eight existing JJBs had been reconstituted and 24 new ones had been constituted. Thus, as on date, boards were in existence in all 32 districts of the state,it said.

On a reference by Narayanan to a High Court order of June 20, in a case relating to stabbing of a city school teacher by her student, that only magistrates trained in child psychology had to be appointed in the boards, the Public Prosecutor submitted that magistrates, appointed and nominated as members of the boards, had undergone training in child psychology.

Even if there were some lacunae, it would be looked into and removed one by one, he said.

The high court bench said in its view error or lacuna or defects in the appointment of magistrates and other defects could not be removed overnight and would take some time.