Chennai: The Madras high court has ordered notice to the state government in connection with appointment of chairperson and members to the district level Child Welfare Committees (CWC) in the state.
Initiating suo motu proceedings a division bench of Justice Huluvadi G Ramesh and Justice M Dhandabani has directed the chief secretary, home secretary and the secretary of social welfare department to file their response to the plea.
The matter is related to the recent gang rape of a 12-year-old differently abled girl in an apartment in Ayanavaram recently. Following the incident A Narayanan of ChangeIndia, a NGO, mentioned before the first bench headed by the Chief Justice Indira Banerjee that the police had failed to intimate the incident to the CWC even two days after the incident. Naryanan alleged that the police had thereby deprived the child of proper counseling and guidance which arecrucial in such cases.
The CJ immediately directed the district legal service authority to provide counseling to the child through CWC. The CJ recording the submission of Narayanan that chairperson and members to 32 district level CWCs are yet to be appointed by the government, the court took suo motu cognizance of the issue and referred the plea to the second bench of the court.
