J&K Judicial Academy organizes one day workshop on Juvenile Justice Act, 2015

Jammu : Jammu and Kashmir Judicial Academy under the patronage of Justice Tashi Rabstan, Chief Justice (Acting), High Court of J&K and Ladakh and Patron-in-Chief, J&K Judicial Academy, organized one day workshop on “Juvenile Justice (Care & Protection) Act, 2015 with special reference to Constitutional Vision of Justice and Concept of Social Justice, Child Abuse Prevention, Protection and Redress” for Principal Magistrates and Juvenile Justice Boards besides officers from Social Welfare Department, Jammu province here today.
The evnt was held under the guidance of Justice Sindhu Sharma, Chairperson, Governing Committee for J&K Judicial Academy and Justice Vinod Chatterji Koul, Justice Javed Iqbal Wani and Justice Wasim Sadiq Nargal, members of Governing Committee for J&K Judicial Academy.
Shahzad Azeem, Director, J&K Judicial Academy, presented an overview of the programme saying that today’s deliberations have been channeled on the discourse of a very vital aspect of justice delivery system.
He hoped that the training programme will go a long way in motivating the participants to rejuvenate their efforts and work with missionary spirit towards fulfillment of Constitutional Vision of Social Justice, Rehabilitation, Reintegration, Child Abuse Prevention and Redressal.
The courts have special responsibility to deal with such cases with extra cautious approach to ensure proper justice and rehabilitation of such children. All the stakeholders need to ensure that children in conflict with the law are treated in a manner substantially different than adults at all stages of the proceedings, he added.
In the first technical session, Pawan Dev Kotwal, District and Sessions Judge (President, District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, Jammu) deliberated in detail about Juvenile Justice (Care & protection of Children) Act, 2015 with special reference to constitutional vision and Concept of Social Justice and about the issues related to the juveniles.
He stressed that approach of the officers of social welfare department and the judicial system must be aimed at addressing the vulnerabilities of the children and ensuring their rehabilitation.
He observed that idea behind rehabilitation is that people are not criminals by birth and have every right to get a chance to mend their character and reintegrated with society to lead a dignified life. All this can be possible with the collective efforts of all stakeholders of the society, said the expert.
In the second technical session, Pawan Dev Kotwal deliberated upon the role of District Child Protection Units (DCPU’s) and linkages between DCPU, Juvenile Justice Boards (JJBs) and Child Welfare Committees (CWC).
He also gave an in depth knowledge regarding Child Protection, Juvenile Justice and Mission Vatsalya (Integrated Child Protection Scheme) in J&K, Juvenile Justice Act Philosophy, Principles, Mandates, Juvenile Justice Boards (communication, bail, case processing, etc).
Later, an interactive session was held during which the participants deliberated and discussed various aspects of the subject topic and raised queries which were satisfactorily settled by the resource persons.