BILL TO AMEND JUVENILE JUSTICE
ACT INTRODUCED IN LOK SABHA
The Social Justice
and Empowerment Minister Dr. Satyanarayan Jatiya introduced the
Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Amendment Bill,
2003 in the Lok Sabha today. The bill seeks to amend the sections
32, 33, 56, 57 and 59 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection
of Children) Act, 2000. The amendment has been necessitated following
the observation made by the Delhi High Court in a public interest
litigation that certain provisions of the Act merited reconsideration.
Keeping in view these observations, the amendment proposes to
have a minimum time period within which a child should be produced
before the Child Welfare Committee. It seeks that the child shall
be produced before the Committee without any loss of time but
within a period of 24 hours excluding the time necessary for the
journey. The amendment bill also proposes to do away with the
association of any untrained police officer from the inquiry process
and seeks to substitute the word `any police officer or special
juvenile police unit` with the `any member of a special juvenile
police unit’. The amendment bill also proposes exclusion of `
or local authority` from the provisions authorizing them to discharge
or transfer a child in need of care and protection or a juvenile
from the children home or special home. It also proposes to provide
for a flexible period of leave that may be given to the child
on special occasions like examination, marriage of relations,
death of kith and kin or accident or serious illness of parent
or any emergency of the like nature.
The Juvenile Act
(Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000 came into force from
1st April, 2001. It was enacted to provide for a juvenile
justice system relating to juveniles in conflict with law and
children in need of care and protection by adopting a child friendly
approach in the adjudication and disposition of matters in the
best interest of children.
