Chennai: Four sobbing little kids got back their smiles in the chamber of Justice Rajiv Shakdher late Thursday evening as the judge, sharing the division bench with Justice N. Sathish Kumar, restored them to the comforting embrace of the Franciscan Sisters of St. Joseph, brushing aside the contention of the State Child Welfare Committee that the Sisters ran an unregistered home that kept the children in illegal custody.
The Bench’s order, coming after elaborate in-camera hearing of the litigants, and the kids in crossfire, ended the traumatising ordeal for the four children since their removal “forcibly” by the CWC from the Sisters’ home, Assisi Illam at Netaji Nagar in St.Thomas Mount, on June 1 and deployment in some other orphanages in the city.
“You need not cry any more. Go back to the Sisters and live happily, get educated. Your brother George Mark will also soon join you”, said the kind judge Shakdher, reaching out to the three girls (9-12 years) and one boy (9) who cried inconsolably on seeing Sister Rose and Sister Matilda of the Assisi Illam.
The two nuns too broke down repeatedly as they were meeting the kids, whom they had brought up from infancy, after a long separation. Their senior counsel Xavier Arulraj was doing his best to console them but in vain.
The Bench heard all the parties separately and thereafter collectively before coming to its humane conclusion to restore the five children to their soul mothers.
The court had summoned the Franciscan Sisters, the CWC and the five children for the in-camera hearing to decide on the kids’ custody. While the CWC brought the four kids for the hearing, the fifth ‘uprooted’ kid George Mark was left behind as he was unwell.
The CWC had contended that the Illam was unauthorised and hence its juvenile inmates were in illegal custody because it failed to inform the government about the admission of five orphans after the enactment of the Juvenile Justice Act.
This law mandates that all orphanages should keep the government (social justice department) informed whenever an orphan/destitute/semi-orphan child is admitted as inmate.
The Illam at Netaji Nagar had 12 semi-orphans and five destitute abandoned at birth. These five came under the CWC scanner as the Illam did not notify their admission to the government while the remaining 12 were untouched by the authorities as their cases fell outside the ambit of the JJ Act. The CWC served show-cause notice to the Illam which wrote back detailing the circumstances under which the children came under the care and protection of the Illam.
The Sisters also promised to close down to the Nethaji Nagar Illam and shift all the 17 inmates to its Home at Magazine Road also in St.Thomas Mount. Not satisfied, the CWC sends its officers to forcibly take away the five kids and deploy them at various other Homes in the city, where they reportedly spent miserable time as they missed the Sisters who had brought them up from infancy. Immediately five orphan inmates, the Franciscan Sisters moved the high court and got an order for getting back their custody but the CWC chose to ignore the order. The Sisters then filed a contempt petition.
