The Delhi High Court has asked the city government to set up three juvenile justice boards here, as proposed by authorities, within two years.
The court also noted that the Delhi government is ready to lay foundation stones to set up the Vatsalya Sadan in Alipur and an integrated complex for an effective implementation of the Juvenile Justice Act comprising various juvenile justice institutions and statutory bodies for the care and protection of children within a single premises.
“The status report (of the city government) also reveals that the state is setting up three juvenile justice boards at Dwarka and Alipur to cater to the cases of these areas and establish juvenile justice boards in every district of Delhi.
“The state government is directed to establish the centres, which have been proposed, within a period of two years from today,” a bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad said in an order that was passed on Tuesday and made available on Wednesday.
The high court’s order came in a case that was initiated by it in 2013 after an incident of vandalism in a juvenile detention centre at Majnu Ka Tila on August 8 of that year.
When members of the court’s Juvenile Justice Committee visited the Majnu ka Tila complex after the incident, it was reported that the inmates lit a fire inside the home by burning blankets and that a couple of cars parked outside were also damaged.
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The committee’s report indicated that the inmates accused the administration of treating them badly and not giving them food on time.
The committee was of the view that the matter be placed before the then acting chief justice of the high court for appropriate directions to inquire into the incident and had also suggested remedial measures, after which several orders were passed from time to time.
Presently, there are 11 child welfare committees, six juvenile justice boards and 21 government-operated child-care institutions in the national capital.
