{"id":5809,"date":"2025-11-20T07:29:57","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T07:29:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/channel1.in\/index.php\/2025\/11\/20\/50000-juvenile-cases-stuck-as-systemic-gaps-stall-justice-india-justice-report\/"},"modified":"2025-11-20T07:29:57","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T07:29:57","slug":"50000-juvenile-cases-stuck-as-systemic-gaps-stall-justice-india-justice-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/channel1.in\/index.php\/2025\/11\/20\/50000-juvenile-cases-stuck-as-systemic-gaps-stall-justice-india-justice-report\/","title":{"rendered":"50,000+ Juvenile Cases Stuck as Systemic Gaps Stall Justice: India Justice Report"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>More than <strong>50,000 children in conflict with the law<\/strong> remain trapped in a sluggish justice system, with <strong>over half of all cases pending<\/strong> before the country\u2019s 362 Juvenile Justice Boards (JJBs), according to a new study released by the <em>India Justice Report (IJR)<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Despite a decade since the Juvenile Justice Act came into force, the study reveals <strong>persistent gaps<\/strong> \u2014 including missing judges, poorly inspected child care homes, absence of structured data systems, and deep inequalities among states.<\/p>\n<p>As of <strong>October 31, 2023<\/strong>, JJBs were handling <strong>1,00,904 cases<\/strong>, of which <strong>55% were pending<\/strong>. Pendency varied sharply across states, from <strong>83% in Odisha<\/strong> to <strong>35% in Karnataka<\/strong>. Although 92% of India\u2019s districts have constituted JJBs, <strong>one in four boards is functioning without a full bench<\/strong>. Each board carries an average backlog of <strong>154 cases<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>The findings also coincide with data showing <strong>40,036 juveniles apprehended in 2023<\/strong> under IPC and special laws \u2014 three-fourths of them in the <strong>16\u201318 age group<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>The report further notes major weaknesses in the rehabilitation structure. Nearly <strong>30% of JJBs lack legal aid clinics<\/strong>, while <strong>14 states and Jammu &amp; Kashmir have no \u201cplaces of safety\u201d<\/strong> for children above 18. Oversight of Child Care Institutions (CCIs) is inadequate \u2014 only <strong>810 of the required 1,992 inspections<\/strong> were conducted across 166 homes.<\/p>\n<p>A glaring data vacuum persists. With <strong>no national-level data grid<\/strong> for the juvenile justice system, IJR researchers filed over <strong>250 RTI applications<\/strong>. Of more than 500 responses received, <strong>only 36% provided useful information<\/strong>, highlighting weak transparency.<\/p>\n<p>Calling the findings a \u201cwarning sign,\u201d IJR chief editor <strong>Maja Daruwala<\/strong> said the system depends on a regular flow of information, but \u201cauthorised oversight bodies neither receive it routinely nor insist on it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The report warns that scattered and inconsistent data has made supervision \u201cepisodic\u201d and <strong>accountability hollow<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>More than 50,000 children in conflict with the law remain trapped in a sluggish justice system, with over half of all cases pending before the country\u2019s&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5808,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5809","post","has-post-thumbnail","category-national"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/channel1.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/channel1.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/channel1.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/channel1.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/channel1.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/channel1.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5809\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/channel1.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/channel1.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/channel1.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/channel1.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}