JJ Act At 10: the Supreme Court’s consultation on a decade of the Juvenile Justice Act heard CJI Surya Kant call for trained defence lawyers for children and Justice BV Nagarathna describe the law as largely on paper.
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New Delhi: Chief Justice of India Surya Kant has called for a separate wing of trained defence lawyers for children, joint training of police and Juvenile Justice Board members, continuity of legal representation and independent evaluation of how many young people actually rebuild their lives, while Justice BV Nagarathna said the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 is “largely on paper” after ten years, at the National Annual Stakeholders Consultation marking a decade of the Act [National Annual Stakeholders Consultation on 10 Years of the Juvenile Justice Act].
The two-day consultation was organised by the Supreme Court’s Juvenile Justice Committee, chaired by Justice BV Nagarathna, with UNICEF. High Court judges, State officers and domain experts are sharing what has worked in their jurisdictions. CJI Surya Kant addressed the gathering after a compendium of landmark judgments under the Act, covering 2015 to September 2026, was announced.
What the CJI said
CJI Surya Kant noted that the 2015 Act calls every person under 18 a “child” rather than a “juvenile in conflict with the law”, and said the phrase describes a circumstance, not an identity. He said the Act proceeds on the presumption that children act without criminal intent, treats institutional care as a last resort, and favours counselling, community service and probation. Trial as an adult for children between 16 and 18, he said, is permitted only for the gravest offences and only after a careful preliminary assessment.
He proposed joint training for police, probation officers, Board members, lawyers and psychologists through judicial and police academies. He also asked legal services institutions to consider a separate wing of trained defence counsel for children, building on NALSA’s Child Friendly Legal Services Scheme, 2024, so that one lawyer can assist a child from the police station through rehabilitation. On the shortage of probation officers, he flagged that social investigation reports are hard to prepare and said that individual care plans often “remain only on paper”.
He further called for the timely destruction of old records and for keeping children’s names off the internet, and for independent evaluation of how many young people return to school, find work and avoid re-offending, rather than counting cases alone. Of the compendium, he said it is “a valuable record of how our courts have interpreted” the statute.
What Justice Nagarathna said
Delivering the opening address, Justice BV Nagarathna said implementation is the main challenge before the Act. She cited the India Justice Report (November 2025), which found that, for the year ending October 2023, 55% of cases before Juvenile Justice Boards in 18 States and two Union Territories were pending. Over 55,000 children were awaiting decisions and about 45,000 cases had been disposed of. The same report found that 24% of responding Boards (111 of 474) lacked a full bench.
Pendency, she said, is not the only concern: what happens to children during and after proceedings matters equally.
a disposed case is not necessarily a rehabilitated child.
She described Section 3, which sets out the guiding principles, as the provision that holds the Act together. A Juvenile Justice Board, she said, is “not meant to be a miniature criminal court”, and preliminary assessments under Section 15 call for caution and expertise. She stressed that care should centre on the family and that institutionalisation is not the same as care.
The way forward
Justice Nagarathna argued that no single institution can implement the Act, and that the next decade should focus on strengthening coordination among the judiciary, police, executive, legal services, probation workers, civil society and families. She urged that decisions be “fair, reasoned and resilient to scrutiny”, and closed by saying the ten years should be “a moment for reflection”.
Why the consultation matters
The two addresses approach the Act from complementary sides. The CJI’s proposals concern the people who run the system: lawyers who stay with a child through every stage, and police and Board members who are trained together. Justice Nagarathna’s figures concern whether the system is delivering: a 55% pendency rate and Boards without full benches point to gaps in capacity rather than in the text of the law.
Both also shift the measure of success from cases disposed of to outcomes for children, such as schooling, work and not re-offending. These are statements made at a consultation and are not directions, and they do not by themselves change any rule. Their effect will depend on whether legal services institutions, academies and State governments act on them.
Event: National Annual Stakeholders Consultation on 10 Years of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, organised by the Supreme Court’s Juvenile Justice Committee with UNICEF
Speakers: CJI Surya Kant; Justice BV Nagarathna, Chairperson of the Juvenile Justice Committee
Date: October 10, 2026
Appearances: not applicable
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