Register FIRs for missing children: Supreme Court
NEW DELHI: More than a decade after Parliament enacted the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, the Supreme Court on Thursday cracked the whip for its implementation, making it mandatory for states to provide a plain-clothed special juvenile police officer (SJPO) in every police station.
In addition, the states have to create a Special Juvenile Police Unit (SJPU), comprising personnel specially trained and oriented for child causes (read offences) in every district and each missing child report must be converted into FIRs, the court ordered.
Though the court had ordered implementation of the law enacted in 2000 by Parliament, very few states have responded to a PIL by Bachpan Bachao Andolan, which alleged that very little was done to trace nearly 55,000 children who go missing every year. Senior advocate H S Phoolka complained that there was lack of scientific investigation to trace the children and that the law for juveniles had not been implemented.
The Supreme Court on Thursday made it mandatory for police stations across the country to compulsorily register missing complaints of any minor and appoint a special police officer to handle complaints of juveniles. Such police personnel should be stationed at every police station in plain clothes.
At a time when there has been a spurt in reports of trafficking of minor children and their abuse, a bench of Chief Justice Altamas Kabir and Justices J Chelameswar and Vikramjit Sen was livid with the casual approach of six states, which did not even bother to depute a lawyer to represent them during the hearing.
It ordered the chief secretaries of Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh and Goa to be present in court on February 5. The chief secretaries of West Bengal and Karnataka got an exemption after their respective counsels pleaded miscommunication.
Advocate Shobha, on behalf of National Human Rights Commission, pointed out that Section 62 of the law on juveniles mandating plain clothed SJPOs to deal with child offenders was not implemented. "So, is it only on paper?" asked the bench.
"In the first instance, the police should not shirk its responsibility," the bench said, ordering police to register an FIR for every missing child complaint. The court had on March 17 last year issued notices to the Centre and the states on the NGO's PIL advocating setting up of an advanced scientific mechanism to investigate and recover missing children.
"In India, in the period of January 2008 to January 2010, over 1.17 lakh children have gone missing in 392 districts in India. Out of them, 41,546 are still untraced," it had said.
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