The State government on Thursday informed the Madras High Court of having created 32 posts of District Child Protection Officers and sanctioned ₹6.04 crore to construct a new building for an observation home for boys and girls in Madurai for effective implementation of the provisions of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act of 2015.
Social Welfare secretary made the submissions in an additional affidavit filed before a Division Bench of Justices Huluvadi G. Ramesh and M. Dhandapani who were seized of a suo motu public interest litigation. petition taken up by the court in February pursuant to a common request made by the Supreme Court to all High Courts in the country.
In a judgment delivered on February 9, a Bench of Justices Madan B. Lokur and Deepak Gupta of the apex court had expressed deep concern over poor implementation of the Act and especially the absence of child-friendly courts in the country. They had also taken note of the fact that juveniles generally undergo a traumatic experience in courts.
Hence, they had requested Chief Justices of all High Courts to make sure that child-friendly courts were established within their territorial jurisdiction. Similarly, the High Courts were asked to initiate suo motu proceedings with respect to the implementation of the Juvenile Justice Act and send a report to the apex court by March 13.
Accordingly, the first Division Bench of Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice Abdul Quddhose initiated a suo motu PIL and directed Government Pleader T.N. Rajagopalan to submit a detailed report. In compliance, the State government had already filed a report listing out the steps taken so far in the State for the effective implementation of the Act.
