‘Over 50% cases pending in Juvenile Justice Boards amid staff shortage’, Pg14

Key Highlights:

• As of October 31, 2023, 55% of cases were pending across 362 Juvenile Justice Boards (JJBs) in India.
• 92% of India's 765 districts have JJBs, but pendency rates vary significantly by state.
• 24% of JJBs were not fully constituted, and 30% lack attached legal services clinics.
• In 2023, 40,036 juveniles were apprehended in 31,365 cases under the Indian Penal Code and Special and Local Laws.

Detailed Insights:

• The India Justice Report (IJR) study highlights systemic gaps in the decentralized architecture of child-centric services.
• High pendency is attributed to vacancies, inadequate legal aid, and high workload, with an average of 154 cases pending per JJB annually.
• The study reveals a weak culture of public data transfer and transparency, with many RTI responses rejected or unanswered.
• The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) Act, 2015 aims to provide a child-centric approach, but faces challenges in implementation and inter-agency coordination.

Key Concepts Involved:

• Juvenile Justice Board (JJB): Authority dealing with children in conflict with the law.
• Pendency Rate: Percentage of cases that are yet to be resolved in a court or board.
• RTI (Right to Information): A law that allows citizens to request information from public authorities.