The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Juvenile Justice Boards: directive to government

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Wednesday, Apr 09, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Juvenile Justice Boards: directive to government

Special Correspondent

Necessary staff strength should be sanctioned

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has directed the Tamil Nadu Government to finalise the proposal for fixing the criteria for selecting Social Worker Members to Juvenile Justice Boards (JJBs) and Child Welfare Committees within two months.

Passing interim orders on a writ petition, the First Bench comprising the Chief Justice A.P.Shah and Justice Prabha Sridevan directed the court Registry to constitute a pool of 30 Judicial Magistrates who could be posted on the JJBs. Training should be provided to identified judicial officers through the Tamil Nadu State Judicial Academy. The academy should devise necessary training programme and complete the training within three months.

Necessary staff strength for the JJBs should be sanctioned.

The court had earlier constituted a committee of experts to examine the conditions in different Children’s Homes (Juvenile Homes), Special Homes, Observation Homes and Shelter Homes in Tamil Nadu and also the working of JJBs, Child Welfare Committees, role of police and other related matters and to make comprehensive recommendations.

The committee headed by retired Judge N.V. Balasubramanian highlighted 12 major issues that needed immediate attention. The State Government submitted its response on all major issues and the Division Bench took up each issue separately. After referring to the State Government’s response the court issued further directions. The State Government submitted an Action Taken Report last month. After discussing the report, the Bench passed several further directions.

The issues taken up by the committee included revamping academic and vocational programmes, fine tuning the probation services, role of police, tracing parents, enhancing grants, JJBs and improving staff competency.

The Bench directed the government to fill up remaining vacancies of teachers for the academic and vocational programmes within three months, make available to the Social Defence Department (SDD) Rs.5.88 lakh for preparing the plans and for the services of architects, artists and landscaping architects to be engaged, and the appropriate amount for constructing/modifying/altering the homes within three years.

As regards probation services, the Bench said the State Government should complete the exercise of appointing 12 Probation Officers within six months. As regards the Observation Home in Chennai, the SDD was at liberty to designate a suitable officer as Probation Officer for the time being, until a regular appointment was made.

The court directed the Home Secretary to take appropriate decision on the proposals made by the Commissioner of Social Defence in regard to strengthening the functions of the existing Special Juvenile Aid Police Units and formation of such units in three months.

The Director-General of Police was directed to include more aspects of the Juvenile Justice Act in the training programmes for police officials, including senior officials.

The matter has been adjourned to July 1.

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