CJ Kotiswar inaugurates session on ‘Children in Conflict with Law’

Srinagar, Aug 19: Chief Justice N. Kotiswar Singh inaugurated one day ‘Annual Stakeholders Consultation on ‘Children in Conflict with Law’ here at Tagore Hall in presence of Justice Tashi Rabstan; Justice Sindhu Sharma; Justice Puneet Gupta; Justice Javed Iqbal Wani; Justice Mohd. Akram Chowdhary and Justice Rajesh Sekhri.
The Consultation meet was organized by the Juvenile Justice Committee, High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh under the aegis of Child Welfare Committee, Supreme Court of India in association with the Social Welfare Department, UT of Jammu and Kashmir, and Social and Tribal Welfare Department, UT of Ladakh.
The Chief Justice in his inaugural address while stressing upon the theme of this year’s meet traced the history of law relating to Child Rights.
Highlighting the circumstances leading the child onto the wrong side of law Justice Tashi in his special address appealed to one and all to prioritize prevention over punishment. He called upon the stakeholders to extend empathy and unwavering commitment towards the wellbeing of children in conflict with law.
The consultation unfolded across a series of meticulously curated technical sessions that illuminated the multifaceted aspects of child protection. In the first technical session Ms. Sonali Kumari, Assistant Director, NIPCCD, Regional Centre, Mohali was the resource person, who deliberated upon the topic “Prevention and Early Intervention”. In her Power point presentation, she delved into detailed strategies that could pre-empt adversities, emphasizing the pivotal role of proactive measures. She was also the resource person for the fourth technical session in which continuing her presentation she explained in detail the rehabilitation mechanisms and the potential of restorative practices in rebuilding young lives. Both the above said sessions were interactive and the participants also threw volley of questions to the resource person for clarification.
The 2nd and 3rd technical Sessions were on the topics “Diversion, Alternatives to Detention, and Non-custodial Alternatives” and “Right to Fair Trial and Child-Friendly Procedures” in which resource persons were Justice (Rtd.) B.A. Kirmani and Justice (Retd.) M.H. Attar.
In his discourse, Justice B.A. Kirmani while referring to the report of Crime Record Bureau published for the year 2020-2021 highlighted that the popular notion about the Child in Conflict with law belonging to poor and marginalized section of the society, is misconceived as the figures for the State of MP and Maharashtra reveal otherwise.
Justice M.H. Attar underscored the significance of child-friendly legal processes and a just trial system in nurturing a sense of justice in young minds.
In the last Technical session, the resource person, Owais Wani, DySP (HQ), Srinagar deliberated upon the topic “Minimum Age of Criminal Responsibility and Age of Criminal Majority (Preliminary Assessment)”. He gave historical perspective regarding fixing of age of criminality in various jurisdictions and referred to various constitutional provisions as well as reasons for fixing the age of criminality at 18 years.
In his welcome address, Amit Kumar Gupta, Member Secretary, Juvenile Justice Committee gave an overview of the programme and said that this UT level Consultation is being organized by the JJ Committee in order to have deliberations by engaging experts, representatives of different organizations and frontline workers working with the children in conflict with law to take stock of the work done so far and for the identification of measurable concrete priority actions.