More than 50,000 children in conflict with the law remain trapped in a slow-moving justice system, with over half the cases pending at 362 Juvenile Justice Boards (JJBs), according to a new India Justice Report (IJR) study released on Thursday.
Despite a decade of the Juvenile Justice Act, systemic gaps persist, including missing judges, under-inspected child care homes, absent data systems, and wide state-level disparities. As of October 31, 2023, 55% of 100,904 cases before JJBs were pending, with pendency ranging from 83% in Odisha to 35% in Karnataka. On average, each board carries a backlog of 154 cases.
Though 92% of India’s 765 districts have constituted JJBs, one in four boards operates without a full bench, and 30% lack an attached legal services clinic. Fourteen states and Jammu & Kashmir do not have places of safety for juveniles above 18. Oversight of Child Care Institutions (CCIs) remains inadequate, with only 810 of the mandated 1,992 inspections completed across 166 homes. Only 40 child care homes exclusively cater to girls nationwide.
The study also highlighted the absence of publicly available national-level juvenile justice data. Attempting to gather information, the IJR team filed over 250 RTI applications, finding weak transparency: 11% were rejected, 24% received no response, 29% were transferred, and only 36% provided usable information.
Maja Daruwala, chief editor of the India Justice Report, warned that the juvenile justice system depends on regular, accurate data. “Scattered and irregular data makes supervision episodic and accountability hollow,” she said, calling the findings a serious warning for the system. (Agencies)
