The Delhi High Court has issued notices to the Centre and Delhi Government over a PIL highlighting serious delays in Juvenile Justice Boards. The plea claims these delays violate children’s rights to a speedy and fair trial.
On Wednesday, the Delhi High Court issued notices to the Central Government and the Delhi Government regarding a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) that has highlighted serious delays in resolving cases by the Juvenile Justice Boards (JJBs) in the national capital.
The Division Bench, led by Chief Justice D.K. Upadhyaya and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela, has sought official responses from the Centre, the Delhi Government, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, and the Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights.
The court has fixed the next date of hearing for September 24. It has also directed the petitioner to present its issues before the court’s committee on juvenile justice.
The PIL has been filed by iProbono India Legal Services. In its petition, the organisation raised concerns about the functioning of the Juvenile Justice Boards in Delhi, calling the delays in case disposal a major problem.
The plea said that there is a “shockingly poor” implementation of the legal timelines that are required under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015.
According to the PIL, these delays are causing a “grave miscarriage of justice” and are “severely undermining the children’s right to fair and speedy trial.”
The plea stressed that the rights of children in conflict with the law are being affected because their cases are not being decided in time.
The petitioner referred to Section 14 of the Juvenile Justice Act, which says that all inquiries in offences involving children must be completed within four months from the first appearance of the child before the Juvenile Justice Board.
In special cases, this can be extended by another two months. For petty offences, the law clearly says that the inquiry must be closed if it is not completed within six months.
To support its claims, iProbono India used information received through the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
This data showed that the rate at which Delhi’s Juvenile Justice Boards are disposing of cases is extremely low.
The organisation said one reason for this is that Delhi has only seven JJBs, while the law under Section 4 of the Juvenile Justice Act requires eleven.
Due to this shortage, many cases are getting delayed, which goes against the main purpose of the Juvenile Justice law — to make sure that children who get involved in crimes are given timely help so they can be rehabilitated and brought back into society in a healthy way.
The plea strongly argued that the present state of pendency of cases is defeating this very objective.
It stated that the current pendency
“undermines the law’s primary objective: ensuring timely rehabilitation and reintegration of children in conflict with the law into society.”
The petitioner has also made a request to the High Court asking that the Chief Judicial Magistrates and Chief Metropolitan Magistrates be instructed to regularly check how many cases are pending before the Juvenile Boards.
They should also be told to send regular compliance reports to the High Court about this matter.
This PIL brings into focus the urgent need to strengthen the juvenile justice system in Delhi, not only by following the law but also by ensuring that young children are not left waiting endlessly for justice.
As the next hearing is scheduled for September 24, all eyes are on the response of the authorities and whether concrete steps will be taken to fix the system.
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