CJI: “Child in conflict with the law” describes a circumstance, not an identity

India’s Chief Justice Surya Kant said on Saturday (Oct 10, 2026) that the names of “children in conflict with the law” must be kept off the news and off the internet, and the phrase describes a circumstance, not an identity.

He was speaking after launching the annual national stakeholder consultation on ‘Ten Years of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015: Progress, Challenges and Priorities for the Next Decade’ organized by the Juvenile Justice Committee of the Supreme Court in collaboration with UNICEF.

The CJI said that 10 years is a short time for a statute, but it is more than half of childhood.

The 2015 law, he says, bets that a child given a second chance is much more likely to become a productive member of society than a child labeled a criminal.

“The journey truly ends when the past no longer casts a shadow over the future. To do this, we must destroy old records in time and keep the names of ‘children in conflict with the law’ out of the news and off the Internet, where they can linger for years,” he said.

“Rehabilitation that ends at the gate of the institution is not rehabilitation at all because reintegration means restoring the young person’s place in the family, school and community without stigma,” the CJI said.

He said the 15-year-old man who was brought before the youth justice court in January 2016 when the law came into force will be about 25 years old today and the first promise the law made to this 15-year-old lies in the words he uses.

“It’s not just a matter of politeness, because the term ‘child in conflict with the law’ describes a circumstance, not an identity,” he said.

The CJI said the situation is usually difficult because the stories of these young people so often speak of shortened schooling, families under pressure and poverty. Most of them come before the law for the first time.

“Very often today, a child was in conflict with the law, just a little earlier, a child in need of care and protection that we failed to provide in time. Our response to such a situation is restoration, not retribution,” the CJI said.

He said the right to be heard means little if there is no one to speak with and for the child.

He said this is why the 2024 NALSA Children’s Legal Services Scheme envisages a lawyer at the police station and a legal services clinic at each Juvenile Justice Committee.

“Yet many jurisdictions still have no such clinic, and without one, preliminary questions regarding the care and welfare of the child may be raised without adequate representation,” Judge Kant said.

He also urged legal services institutions to consider creating a separate wing of trained advocates for children, so that everyone has a dedicated lawyer from the first hour and the same lawyer continues to help, from the police station to the final order and rehabilitation.

The CJI said that between detention and the final order of the board, a child in conflict with the law will meet with a police officer, a probation officer, a board of trustees, a lawyer and possibly probation staff, “each of whom must see not only the offense but the child behind it”.

“Regular training through our judicial and police academies, connecting these persons with psychologists, would teach them not only about adolescence, trauma and poverty, but also how to work with each other. After all, those who work together should not be trained in separate rooms,” the CJI said.

He emphasized a regular, independent assessment that can tell, with due care for privacy, how many young people have gone back to school, found work and never come before the board again.

Speaking at the inaugural session, Supreme Court Justice BV Nagarathna said the consultation was an opportunity to take stock of this “major piece” of legislation and what the last 10 years have meant for the children for whom the law exists.

“On a more general level, it may not be out of place to mention that it is our duty as adults to understand our children’s anxieties. We cannot dismiss their fears so that they do not feel alienated and rejected,” she said, adding: “All children are ours and their suffering is ours too.”

She said the Juvenile Justice Board is not intended to be a “miniature criminal court” and its role is rooted in a different philosophy that recognizes that children have the capacity to develop and change and that the justice system’s response must take this developmental reality seriously.

Justice Nagarathna said the November 2025 India Justice Report found that in the year ending October 2023, 55 per cent of the cases before the administrative authorities in 18 states and two union territories were pending.

“More than 55,000 children were awaiting a decision, and out of 1,00,904 cases before 362 panels during this period, 45,097 were disposed of. The same study reported that 24 percent of the corresponding panels – 111 out of 470 – were operating without a full bench of the Chief Magistrate and these two social workers,” she said23.

Justice Nagarathna said the law is ultimately a law of the future.

“When a child breaks the law, the law must not break the child,” she said.

Published – 10 Oct 2026 17:18 IST