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A division bench of the Delhi High Court consisting of Justices Anup Jairam Bhambhani and Sidharth Mridul has directed for the immediate release in all cases of petty offences against children/juveniles, where the inquiry has been pending for longer than 1 year, in terms of Section 14(4) of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015. 

The bench said that regardless of whether the subject child/juvenile has been produced before the Juvenile Justice Board, all such inquiries shall stand terminated with immediate effect and that a formalorder closing all such matters shall be passed within 02 (two) weeks.

The bench said it was doing so in light of the fact
that when a report/final report is filed alleging a petty offence, "it is the State’s own case, that the subject is a child or juvenile."

The order is intended passed ex debito justiciae, the bench said, "to correct an error in the judicial dispensation."  

With respect to cases where inquiries are pending for between 06 months and 01 year, the state has been directed to apprise the court of the number of such cases pending in each Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) in Delhi, along with the date of institution of the inquiry and the date of first production (if any) in each case, within 10 (ten)
days. 

The court passed the order while interpreting S.14(4) of the Act, which provides on inquiry by Board regarding child in conflict with the law that, 

"(4) If inquiry by the Board under sub-section (2) for petty offences remains inconclusive even after the extended period, the proceedings shall stand terminated.."

The court said in this regard that, on a plain reading of Section 14(4), it is evident that, "If an inquiry relates to a ‘child’; and the allegation is that the child has committed a ‘petty offence’; and a period of 04 months has elapsed from the date of the child’s first production before a JJB; but the inquiry remains inconclusive, by operation of law, that is to say automatically, such inquiry proceedings are to ‘stand terminated’."

The court was originally hearing a matter wherein questions of law placed by the Principal Magistrate, Juvenile Justice Board-II, Delhi Gate, New Delhi for decision before this court, concerning circumstances when a child in conflict with law (‘CCL’) also happens to be a child in need for care and protection (‘CNCP’).

However, in the course of proceedings, issues pertaining to interpretation and effective implementation of some provisions of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of
Children) Act 2015, were brought to the notice of the court upon which it proceeded to widen the scope of the proceedings to address what it saw "as matters critical to the administration of juvenile justice," including the issue at hand.

Case Title: Court on its own motion v State & Sadhan Haldar v The State NCT of Delhi & Ors.