Juvenile homes were an important part of the system and deserved immediate attention, the Delhi High Court today said and expressed anguish over deficiencies in these remand homes due to lack of infrastructure.
The court made the observation while taking cognisance on its own on of a news report that referred to an inspection of a juvenile home here by a team from the Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR) which had received reports of drug and sexual abuse.
A bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar appointed advocate Anant Kumar Asthana and child rights activist Bharti Ali as amici curiae (friends of the court) to assist the court in the matter.
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It said both Asthana and Ali should physically visit all the juvenile homes here and place a report before the court for consideration as well as before a juvenile justice committee headed by a senior judge of the Delhi High Court, which is looking after these aspects.
The court was unhappy that a report of the DCPCR team was made available to the media without placing it before the committee.
"In our view, all the issues need to be addressed expeditiously and be placed before the committee. The issues are of serious nature relating to want of infrastructure," the bench said, adding that there could be deficiencies in other juvenile homes here.
"Juvenile Justice homes are an important part of the juvenile justice system and deserve immediate attention," it said and listed the matter for January 4.
It further said that the news report be placed before the committee for taking necessary steps.
As per the news report, the DCPCR team had inspected Prayas Children's home for boys in Jahangirpuri here on December 9 where it found rat-infested kitchens, dirty toilets with no doors or soap, and complaints of physical torture.
Recently, some children had fled from the juvenile home.
A team member had claimed that though there were allegations of sexual assault at the juvenile home, the children were not ready to speak about it.
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