'Endeavor To Comply With Juvenile Justice Act': Allahabad High Court Tells State As Plea Alleges Non-Implementation

A division bench of Acting Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Justice Rajendra Kumar has granted three weeks to the State for filing its counter-affidavit.

"The endeavour would be to see that the provisions of Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 and Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Model Rules, 2016 are complied with have been highlighted in the present writ petition," the Bench added.

The Petitioner-advocate, Pawan Tiwari, alleged that the State is not compliant with the JJ Act, nor with the and Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Model Rules 2016.

The petition references a Government Order issued by the Department of Women and Child Development, mandating a meeting of members/ officers of constituted block/ village child protection committee after every three months to examine the welfare of the child, protection, education, health, etc.

The Committee is also mandated to see that there should be no child labor, child sexual harassment, trafficking, and cruelty. If any such incident is found, the Committee is to inform the Special Juvenile Police Unit in the local police station, Juvenile Justice Board, District Child Protection Committee, and Child Welfare Committee. However, it is alleged that there is no compliance to the said order.

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The petition further mentions Rule 8(4) and Rule 86 (5), that require a Child Welfare Police Officer to be in plain clothes and not in uniform, and women officers to be engaged to deal with girl children. It also mentioned Rule 8 (6) and 86(11) that mandates police stations, Child Care Institutions, Committees, Boards, and the Children's Courts to display the list of all Child Welfare Police Officers and Special Juvenile Police Units.

The Petitioner claimed that he has submitted various representations on several occasions to the concerned authorities, including the Chief Development Officer, Director General Police, Addl. Director General Police, Chairman, National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, District Child Welfare Officer, and the Superintendent of Police, for implementation of the above rules. However, the State has not provided any information thereof.

On one occasion, in pursuance of his representation, the Petitioner claims, the SP, Baghgpat sent a letter dated 24.12.2020 to all Circle Officers/ Station House Officers to implement the Model Rule 2016 in the District, and directed that while investigating the juvenile, the officer shall be in plain clothes and not in uniform. However, despite the direction, the Petitioner claims that the Police have failed to follow the rules.

The Petitioner reveals that he filed an RTI application seeking information regarding cases registered under the JJ Act from the year 2001 to 2021 in police stations of Baghpat District, to which the Additional SP has replied that 'no cases has been registered in any police station under Act 2015 (JJ Act)'.

Advocates Mahendra Pratap and Anurag Yadav appeared for the Petitioner. AAG Manish Goyal accepted notice for the State.

The matter is fixed for July 23, 2021.