: Kerala Government today informed the High Court that so far no specific issue of child exploitation had been reported by any authority in the case relating to the trafficking of 588 children from Jharkhand, Bihar and West Bengal.
Sending the children for care, protection and education by parents cannot be treated as offence, the government stated in the counter affidavit filed by Social Justice department, Deputy secretary, L A Gregorius on a PIL seeking CBI investigation in the case.
It was stated that the government had made all its best efforts to combat any type of child exploitation and government authorities are in the process of implementing the recommendations of the National Child Rights Commission and Supreme court directions in this regard.
On the present issue, it said so far no specific issue of child exploitation has been reported by any authority. It also claimed that state police was investigating this aspect in detail.
Government also said that provisions of Juvenile Justice Act 2000 was not applicable to children having supporting parents or family. It was further claimed that the state has effective supervision and monitoring mechanism for its implementation.
"So far no authority has declared the children in question as child in need of care and protection as defined in Juvenile Justice Act," it was submitted.
Government also opposed the observations made by Amicus Curiae regarding transfer of children.
The court had described as 'shocking' the manner in which the children were brought to Kerala recently from the three eastern states.
