On the initiative of Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR), the Delhi High Court recently designated 11 children’s court in all the 11 districts of Delhi.
The specially-designated courts will deal with all cases wherein children are victims of crime and also cases where they are witnesses.
The DCPCR took up the matter with the High Court citing the provision under the CPCR Act, 2005, that grants setting up children courts in all districts to deal with the legal protection of the under-age.
CPCR have been constituted in Delhi, Assam, Karnataka, Goa, Maharashtra, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Sikkim. “But DCPCR has the distinction of being the first commission to have successfully pursued the High Court to get these children courts designated,” said a release.
Delhi had already designated two juvenile justice courts to deal with issues pertaining to children as perpetrators of crime. In addition, four child welfare courts were already designated to deal with issues pertaining to children in need of care and protection. Now, the Delhi High Court has designated 11 children court to specifically cover cases where children are victims of crime or are witness to crime.
The Delhi High Court has designated the senior most Additional Session Judges in each district of Delhi.
The 11 ASJs are Neeraj Kumar Gupta (Dwarka Court), S. K. Sarwaria (Patiala Court), J. R. Arayn (Patiala Court). Sudhir Kumar Jain (Rohini Court), Sanjay Kumar (Rohini Court), Vinod Kumar (Tis Hazari Court), Vinay Kumar Khanna (Kakardooma Court), Pinky (Patiala Court), Punam Chaudhary (Tis Hazari Court), M. S. Nivedita Anil Sharma (Tis Hazari Court) and Raj Kapoor (Kakardooma Court).
The DCPCR is now officially taking up the issue with the Delhi Commissioner of Police so that investigating officers at the police station level are sensitised to segregate relevant existing cases from others and make sure that in future all such cases are sent to their concerned courts only.
