The Madras High Court has succeeded in persuading Madras University to introduce diploma and certificate courses in juvenile justice and juvenile psychology.
The move is aimed at creating trained hands to provide counselling and assistance required for the effective implementation of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act of 2015.
According to a notification by the High Court’s Registrar General on Friday and ordered to be circulated among all judicial officers in the State, it was Justice S. Manikumar, chairman of the Juvenile Justice Committee of the High Court, who had suggested the introduction of such courses in the Department of Criminology in the University of Madras.
Head of the Department M. Srinivasan accepted the suggestion and designed a part-time diploma course on juvenile justice and juvenile psychology with a minimum duration of two semesters.
A maximum of 60 students would be admitted in the course and the classes would be held thrice a week between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m., an appendix to the circular read.
The medium of instruction would be English and the fee per semester for the course had been fixed at ₹8,440.
Similarly, the certificate course with a minimum duration of one semester would also have a maximum 60 seats and would be conducted thrice a week between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. in English. The fee per semester would be ₹8,240.
It had been decided to offer both the courses from academic year 2018-19 and applications for the first batch could be submitted online at egovernance.unom.ac.in/cbcs1819/ before July 31 on payment of the application fee of ₹300. The High Court has asked the judicial officers to disseminate the information to all court staff as well as other individuals.
Panel set up in 2013
A court official said the Juvenile Justice Committee in the High Court was set up in 2013 at the instance of the then Chief Justice of India P. Sathasivam.
A similar committee was appointed in the Supreme Court too under the chairmanship of Justice Madan B. Lokur for the effective implementation of the Juvenile Justice Act that was in force before the notification of the 2015 Act.
At present, the committee has a separate secretariat in the High Court with an officer in the rank of Assistant Registrar heading it. It has been constantly working with the Department of Social Defence and other allied organisations, helping children in conflict with law, abandoned children, those in adoption homes and victims of child abuse.
Periodical reports on the work done by it is being forwarded to the Juvenile Justice Committee led by Mr. Justice Lokur.