The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 (hereinafter the ‘JJ Act 2015’) was amended in 2021. The Amendment Act of 2021 included multiple modifications in some essential areas of the legislation, including adoption, categorisation of offenses, designated courts, and eligibility criteria for members of Child Welfare Committees (CWCs). The Amendment Act was overwhelmingly supported by both ruling and opposition parties.

Recently, a lawyer representing a child victim of sex abuse was asked by the judge presiding over a POCSO court – ‘is there an independent right of a victim to question a witness in a criminal trial?’ This was prompted after the lawyer representing the child victim suggested a few questions to the Public Prosecutor (PP) to be put to an expert medical witness tendering evidence regarding the age of the victim.

by Maansi Verma – March 2022 A teenage girl (‘X’) and her family were attacked by a group of people in her locality on multiple occasions, during which time the child was sexually assaulted as well. Her family had called the police every time they were physically attacked but the police took no action and […]

by Krishna Sharma on March 2022 In this post, I’ll discuss another issue of grave concern in the area of juvenile justice –  keeping children in adult jails. The Juvenile Justice Act (the ‘JJ Act’) is  beneficial legislation that aims to provide care, protection and rehabilitation to children who commit offenses. But when a child is […]

In October 2021, a court in Rajasthan sentenced a man to 20 years imprisonment for raping a 9 year old girl. This case made it to the news because of the exceptional speed of challan to conviction.

It’s been a few months since I began to observe the juvenile justice system in Delhi. I have many resulting questions from the perspective of a legal professional and a fellow human being.