JOSE MAVELI Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner, President of an institution which pleads that it has the necessary recognition to be a "fit institution" under the provisions of S.2 (h) of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000, hereinafter referred to as 'the Act', has filed this writ petition complaining that the Judicial First Class Magistrate, Aluva, on production of two children with necessary request under the Act, issued Exts. P3(a) and P4(a) orders to the following effect: The petition is returned. Produce the child before the Child Welfare Committee or the Chief Judicial Magistrate, as the case may be.Different reliefs are sought for in this writ petition seeking directions to the concerned Magistrate to exercise authority under the Act etc.

(2.) BY the interim order passed at the stage of admission on 01/02/2007, there is a direction that the petitioner will have interim custody of the children referred to in Exts. P3 and P4 for a period of four weeks, to be produced before this Court or such authority, as may be directed by this Court later on.

(3.) THE learned Government Pleader submits on instructions that "Advisory Committees" have been constituted in all the districts of the State. If what have been constituted are Advisory Boards in terms of S.62, they are not the statutory committees to be called the Child Welfare Committees to exercise the statutory authority under Chapter III of the Act. If what have been constituted are Child Welfare Committees in terms of S.29, then obviously, those committees will have to exercise authority under S.29 of the Act and the relevant rules framed under the Act.