Appoint new members in District Juvenile Justice Boards: Madras HC to govt
Chennai: The Madras high court has directed the state government to proceed with the appointment of new members in the District Juvenile Justice Boards for all the 32 districts as per the District Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Rules,2017 in consonance with the model rules of the Central government within 4 months.
A division bench comprising Justices Huluvadi G.Ramesh and M.Dhandapani gave the directive while disposing of the petitions filed by S.Srinivasa Raghavan and C.Anand Raj, which sought to take action to constitute the selection committee and to take appropriate steps for the selection of members for the Juvenile Justice Boards and chairperson and members of the Child Welfare Committees in all 32 districts in Tamil Nadu.
The bench said when the petition filed by Srinivasa Raghavan came up for hearing on April 6, 2017, this court had granted an interim injunction restraining the state government from appointing fresh social worker member to the District Juvenile Justice Board, pending disposal of the petition.
Thereafter, when the petition came up for hearing on June 5, 2017, this court observed that though the new Rules came into force as early as on September 21, 2016, the same has not yet been implemented by the state government and the matter was adjourned for filing counter as to the constitution of the selection committee. The other petitions have been posted along with this petition, as the subject matter involved was one and the same, the bench added.
The bench said when the matter came up for hearing on April 26, 2018, additional advocate general C.Manishankar submitted that the existing members’ tenure came to an end in the year 2015 itself, and the new member selection process was over.
He requested the court to vacate the interim order to permit the authorities to proceed with the matter for appointing the members in the District Welfare Committees. Further, it appears that the appointment process has not been completed and since the new rules came in to effect in the year 2017, the appointment has to be proceeded only based on the new rules in consonance with the model rules of the Central government. “Hence, we deem it fit to issue a direction to appoint the members in the District Juvenile Justice Boards within 4 months”, the bench added and vacated the interim injunction granted on April 6, 2017.
