SC to Centre: Expedite NCPCR chairman, members' appointment

New Delhi, Feb 20 (IANS) The Supreme Court Friday directed the Centre to take steps for the expeditious appointment of the chairman and members of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), lying vacant since last October.

The apex court's social justice bench comprising Justice Madan B. Lokur and Justice Uday Umesh Lalit said "Chairperson will be appointed expeditiously" including members in 30 days.

The positions of the NCPCR chairman and the members have been lying vacant since October, 2014 when former chairperson Kushal Singh and six members demitted office on completion of their term. Besides chairman, the NCPCR has six members.

The court's directions came in the course of the hearing of a PIL by NGO Bachpoan Bachao Andolan (BBA) seeking to put in place standard operating procedures including registration of FIRs about the missing children and tracing them.

The NGO is also seeking training of the police personnel at every police station for handling such children.

Besides filling of the vacancies at NCPCR, the court directed the setting up of the advisory committee in pursuance to the provisions of the Juvenile Justice Act, 2000 at the State and district levels.

Section 62 of the Juvenile Justice Act, 2000 provides for the setting up of the central, state, district and city advisory boards to advice government on the establishment and maintenance of homes, mobilisation of resources, provision of facilities for education, training and rehabilitation of child in need of care and protection and juvenile in conflict with law.

The court's direction on setting up the advisory committees under the JJ Act came on the submission of senior counsel H.S.Phoola who had sought direction to this affect.

Appreciating the updated website www.trackthemissingchild.gov.in, which has been linked with mobiles and app, the court said this website should also be available in other languages.

The court was informed that the site was already available in Hindi.

While asking the Tata Institute of Social Sciences to complete by April 10, 2015, the Standard Operating Procedure to be followed by the police in dealing with the cases of missing children, the court asked it to complete the task till April 10.

The court said that the National Police Academy would prepare a training capsule for training of the trainers who, in turn, would train police personnel in State Police Academies for the training of policemen at police stations to deal with missing children or those in conflict with law.

The court also asked Additional Solicitor General Maninder Singh to file a status report on the missing children in different States, including those who have been traced.

Directing the listing of the matter for further hearing April 17, the court said that the report on the compliance of all its directions be filed by April 10.