Complete consultation for draft rules under JJ Act in 8 weeks: HC

LUCKNOW: The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court has directed the Uttar Pradesh chief secretary to coordinate with different departments and ensure that the consultation process for finalisation of draft rules under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children ) Act is completed within eight weeks.

The court further directed that the rules be notified thereafter.

The court passed the order in connection with a case of betterment of protection homes of the state. A division bench of justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and justice Rajan Roy passed the order on a PIL pending since 2008.

The petitioner had sought directions for proper arrangements in the protection homes.

The court had asked the amicus curiae to prepare a brief note of the statutory prescriptions available in the Juvenile Justice Care and Protection Act and any other such state or central legislation and the functions assigned to various bodies/institutions, government or non government, under such enactments.

The court said it had a feeling that the government had taken an unnecessarily long time for finalising the said rules.

Having regard to the urgency of the rules being in place, the court directed that intra- departmental consultation process for finalizing the draft rules shall be completed within a maximum period of eight weeks.

Rules under section 110 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children ) Act, 2015, are to be framed for the purpose of appropriately giving effect to the provisions of the Act.

In case these rules are not framed, it becomes difficult to appropriately implement the provisions of the Act, the court said.

The court listed the case on February 8, 2019 and directed the officers concerned to file their affidavit regarding compliance with this order.

THE COURT SAID

IT HAD A FEELING THAT THE GOVERNMENT HAD TAKEN AN UNNECESSARILY LONG TIME FOR FINALISING THE SAID RULES