Loktantrik Janata Dal activists take part in a candlelight march to protest against the Muzaffarpur shelter ho... Read More

NEW DELHI: An interim social audit report of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) startled the Supreme Court on Tuesday by claiming that an overwhelming majority of child care institutions (CCIs) were operating in utter disregard of mandatory legal standards.

The NCPCR’s affidavit, submitted through advocate Anindita Pujari, said, “Even at this preliminary stage, it is emerging from a rapid analysis of data that there are very few institutions that have received positive remarks from various inspection committees or are maintaining proper data as has been mandated under Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015.”

The SC had sought audit of children’s shelter homes after largescale abuse of girls were reported from Muzaffarpur in Bihar and Deoria in Uttar Pradesh.

The NCPCR told a bench of Justices Madan B Lokur, S Abdul Nazeer and Deepak Gupta, “For instance, out of a total 2,874 children’s home studied till now, only 54 institutions have received positive reviews from all the six committees. Similarly, out of 185 shelter homes audited till now, only 19 institutions have all 14 records of a child that they are supposed to maintain.

“So far as special adoption agencies are concerned, 203 of them have been audited and only eight institutions received positive reviews from all six committees. Out of 172 observation homes audited till July 31, only five had received positive review from all the committees.

“Out of 80 special homes/places of safety, only three institutions had received positive reviews from all six committees. In view of this, while the social audit carried out by NCPCR is likely to be over by October 2018, the states in the meantime can take positive measures to improve the condition of CCIs.”

Amicus curiae Aparna Bhat repeatedly urged the court to appoint an oversight committee, over and above the NCPCR that supervises state and district committees as well as many other committees, but the Centre’s counsel R Balasubramanian said the government believed strengthening the existing mechanism of inspecting committees would serve the purpose.

Justice Lokur, wary of repeated objections put up by the Centre through additional solicitors general and the attorney general on the ground of judiciary encroaching into the executive’s turf, repeated the cliche “separation of power” several times and said, “Is it the job of the court to correct all ills? The Centre passes the buck to the states. We are very clear. No one is interested in doing anything and the court is helpless. If we do something, we will be told we are indulging in judicial activism .”

The SC posted the matter for further hearing on September 25 and asked Bhat to prepare a draft reference for the proposed oversight committee.

