In an appeal by Sampurna Behrua, with the Union of india as respondent, the Supreme Court bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta on Friday (February 9) directed every state to create child welfare boards and juvenile courts.

This was a call that had been existing for a long time, especially with huge space constraints in regular courts as pendency in other matters rise. That had left matters related to juvenile justice at the mercy of space (court) availability. Hence the very work of the implementation of the Juvenile Justice Act, 2000 was being affected.

The court also directed every chief justice of every high court take the directions suo moto to get it implement in a time bound manner.

This delegation of power and authority by the top court will allow the high courts to push the issue expeditiously.

–      India Legal Bureau