SC seeks report on detention of children in J&K

■ Apex court asks JJ panel of HC on veracity of allegations

The Supreme Court on Tuesday sought an elaborate report by the Jammu and Kashmir high court juvenile justice committee on the veracity of the allegations relating to the detention of children by the state police following the abrogation of Article 370 and the bifurcation of the state into two Union Territories.

A bench of Justice N.V. Ramana, Justice R. Subhash Reddy and Justice B.R. Gavai sought fresh report from the J&K high court JJ committee comprising four judges of the high court as it noted that earlier report was not entirely in consonance with the spirit of the September 20, 2019 order of the top court.

“As the issues highlighted pertain to alleged detention of children, we direct the juvenile justice committee of the high court of Jammu & Kashmir to undertake an exercise with regard to the facts stated in the writ petition and revert to us within a week from today,” said the top court by its September 20, 2019, order.

The court on Tuesday observed that the earlier report could not be entirely in accord with its directions as one week time given to it was not enough for a detailed findings of the facts of each case.

This time court did not bind the JJ committee with any time line asking it to submit the report expeditiously.

In the course of the hearing,

J&K high court’s juvenile justice committee comprises four judges and its previous report on the subject was not found in consonance with the spirit of the apex court’s September order

the court made it clear that it was not satisfied with the report as the juvenile justice committee has not appreciated the spirit of the top court’s order. Seeking that the matter should now be sent to J&K high court, solicitor general Tushar Mehta said that the petitioner Ganguly should approach the statutorily constituted juvenile justice committee and avail of the available remedies.

As the top court made some observation not appreciating the report, Mr Mehta urged the court to hold its observations as it has its ramifications.

The court sought report from the JJ committee after senior counsel Huzefa Ahmadi told the court “How can there be preventive detention of children? The preventive detention of the children is not allowed.”

Pointing to the flaws in the report submitted by the HC’s JJ committee, Mr Ahmadi took the court through the details of the each case of detention of children brought before the court by the child right activist Enakshi Ganguly.