Despite the intervention of court to maintain order in juvenile correctional facilities, the authorities have failed miserably to rein in troubled teens at these remand homes. Juvenile breakouts at alarming regularity have left the authorities red-faced. In December last year, 35 young offenders fled from the Mukherjee Nagar centre after rioting and arson.
Recently, four girls escaped from Hari Nagar Child Protection home after scaling the walls on February 14. As provisions of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act prohibit police deployment in these homes, the administration is planning to deploy ex-servicemen at these centres. The move came after the order of the Delhi High Court which earlier had asked the Delhi Government to use police for maintaining peace inside observation homes housing delinquent juveniles.
However, the Court modified its earlier order of using police and ordered deployment of retired Army men for the purpose after the Government apprised about the provisions of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children). The Government had also told court that as far as the proposal of deploying ex-servicemen on contract is concerned, “The proposal has been since cleared” and was pending approval from the Finance Department.
“The respondents, including the Finance Department, are hereby directed to ensure that the proposal is speedily dealt with and appropriate clearances given at the earliest convenience,” the bench has said. Meanwhile, expressing their helplessness, the official of the observation home said they had been finding it difficult to discipline the minors staying at the correction home given the provision of Section 23 of the JJ Act. They said as per law, if a juvenile lodges a complaint of assault against an official, a case will be registered without any enquiry and the person concerned would be arrested immediately.
“This is the prime reason officials fear implication in false cases,” said an official of the centre, adding all juveniles lodged in the observation centre were aware of Section 23 of the JJ Act and misused it.