Supreme Court judge Justice BV Nagarathna on Saturday called for stronger institutions, greater accountability and more effective implementation of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015.
Addressing the inaugural session of the National Annual Stakeholders Consultation at the Supreme Court organised to mark 10 years of the legislation, Justice Nagarathna said the core philosophy of juvenile jurisprudence should remain that “when a child breaks the law, the law must not break the child”.
Citing the India Justice Report study of November 2025 based on data as of October 2023, she said more than 55,000 children were awaiting decisions in pending cases that were 55% of the total cases before Juvenile Justice Boards in 18 states and two Union Territories. The study found that some 25% of the Boards were understaffed without the bench of a principal magistrate and two social-worker members.
Justice Nagarathna cautioned that while pendency was only one aspect of the problem, the conditions the children faced awaiting trial needed closer examination. She asked whether the juvenile justice machinery knew if the children’s access to education, counselling, legal assistance and medical care were met.
“A disposed case is not necessarily a rehabilitated child,” she observed, differentiating between the end of legal proceedings and successful reintegration of a child into society.
She highlighted Section 3 of the Act, which lays down principles including the presumption of innocence, dignity, participation of the child, privacy and confidentiality, and institutionalisation as a measure of last resort.
Justice Nagarathna emphasised that Juvenile Justice Boards should not function as miniature criminal courts. Their approach, she said, must recognise children’s capacity for development and change.
While the 2015 Act classified offences as petty, serious and heinous, she noted that rehabilitation, social reintegration, family-based care and the best interests of the child remained central objectives of the legislation.
She flagged the importance of preliminary assessments under Section 15, which deals with a child’s mental and physical capacity, and called for scrutiny of whether these assessments were being conducted consistently, sensitively and with the necessary expertise.
On children in need of care and protection, Justice Nagarathna said the Act envisaged a system that prioritised restoration to the family and other forms of family-based care wherever consistent with the child’s best interests.
The challenge, she said, was more about implementation and less in the absence of a legal framework. Adequate staffing and support for Child Welfare Committees, meaningful access to legal aid, timely Social Investigation Reports and the ability of children with disabilities to access the system on an equal basis needed improvement.
“No single institution can implement the JJ Act,” she said, adding that the coming decade should focus not only on strengthening individual institutions but also on improving coordination between them.
Justice Nagarathna said the two-day consultation should produce a practical roadmap for improving implementation, with concrete takeaways and best practices that could be adopted by states and Union Territories.
Emphasising the responsibility of the justice system towards children, she said that a child must be seen as an individual whose circumstances require an appropriate response, rather than merely as a case file, placement or statistic.
“The next decade should, therefore, be a decade of better outcomes under the Act,” she said, calling for better data, stronger institutions, more effective protection services and adjudication that is both timely and sensitive to children’s needs.
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