Tamil Nadu - Madurai   

High Court Bench pulls up Juvenile Justice Board

By Our Staff Reporter

MADURAI, APRIL 7. The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court today condemned the Juvenile Justice Board here for "committing an illegality" by handing over the custody of two German girls to a person, who impersonated as their paternal aunt.

Setting aside the Board's order on a petition moved by the children's mother, a Sri Lankan national, Justice M. Chockalingam remitted the matter back to the lower court, directing it to re-enquire and hand over the custody to the legal guardian within a month.

According to the petitioner, Malini Janarajan (32), her children, Makishakini (9) and Vidhushakini (6), were arrested with their father, Janarajan, and his second wife for attempting to travel illegally to Sri Lanka in a ferry from Rameswaram. They were also found to be in possession of forged Sri Lankan passports, which identified the father as Krishnamurali and the children as Vaisnavi and Vaisali.

The Pamban police in Ramanathapuram district registered a case under the provisions of Foreigner's Act, Unlawful Activities Prevention Act and Foreigner's Order, 1948 against them. While the adults were sent to judicial custody, the children were produced before the Juvenile Justice Board in Madurai.

The Board, on January 22, 2005, handed over custody of the children to Chella of Manamadurai in Sivagangai district, who claimed to be their paternal aunt. According to Chella, she made a false representation before the Board on humanitarian grounds on a request from Janarajan. She helped him secure the children and handed them to their paternal grandparents in Chennai.

In her affidavit, Malini said she fell in love with Janarajan, a restaurateur in Burg Famah, Germany, and married him in 1995. She moved to Germany with a permanent visa and their marriage was registered in that country. She gave birth to two girl children. But the couple began to have marital differences. Her husband took the children to school on September 17, 2002 but did not return home.

A case was registered with the local police in Germany. On enquiry, it was found that the children were taken to Colombo via Denmark and London. She came to Sri Lanka and filed a case in Batticaloa seeking custody of her children. Though the Magistrate issued a warrant against her husband, he evaded the process and moved to India.

She followed him to Chennai on December 12, last and filed a complaint against her husband with the State Commission for Women. The Commission referred the matter to the City Police Commissioner, who in turn forwarded it to his subordinate officers. But nothing transpired thereafter, she alleged.

Malini traced the children at her in-laws' house here in Valasarawakkam. But by the time she could establish contact after filing a complaint with the Valasarawakkam police on January 17, she learnt that her husband and the children had been arrested.

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