High Court directs State Government
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, January 22 2019: The High Court of Manipur directed the State Government on January 16, to create four posts of Principal Magistrate to hold charge of Juvenile Justice Board and to establish at least four child friendly Courts and child friendly police stations in the four valley districts within three months.

The direction was given by Division Bench, High Court of Manipur, comprising of Chief Justice Ramalingam Sudhakar and Justice Kh Nobin, in connection with a PIL filed by the Registrar General, High Court of Manipur, with the Chief Secretary (Manipur), Principal Secretary/ Commissioner/Secretary/Special Secretary Social Welfare, Chairperson State Commission for Protection of Child Rights, Chairman of the Management Committee North East Children Home and Secretary, Ministry of Women and Child Development, India, as respondents.

During the hearing of the PIL, the High Court heard A Bimol, Senior Advocate appearing for the petitioner as well as N Kumarjit, Advocate General, Manipur, appearing for the respondents.

The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2015, was enacted by Parliament to ensure that all the needs of the children are met and their basic human rights are fully protected.

It is reported that children constitute around 40 percent of the country's population and section 4 of the Act provides for constitution of one or more Juvenile Justice Board.

At present, Manipur has 16 revenue districts and there are only 9 Judicial districts.

Juvenile Justice Boards have been constituted in only 9 districts of the State even after more than three years since passing of the Act.

Not a single post of Principal Magistrate has been created by the State Government as a result of which many of the Judicial Magistrates have also been assigned the additional charge of the Principal Magistrate.

Since the Judicial Magistrate first class are already over burdened with their judicial works dealing with the pending cases, the functioning of the Juvenile Justice Boards has been greatly affected and hampered.

The High Court directed that State Government to create four posts of Principal Magistrate within three months, to hold the charge of Juvenile Justice Board in respect of four valley districts where the cases are more in number and to create the remaining five posts by the end of this year.

It further directed the State Government to establish at least four child friendly Courts and four friendly police stations, as required under the rules, in the four valley districts within three months and to establish all other remaining ones by the end of this year as well.

The High Court instructed the State Government to create separate posts of APP to conduct the cases to ensure that all the provisions of the Act and rules made under the Act, are implemented without any loss of time.

The Court then listed the matter for April 24 .

Comment