Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Amendment Bill passed

The Juvenile Justice (Care & Protection of Children) Amendment Bill has been passed. This bill seeks to increase the role of additional district magistrates and district magistrates regarding the matters which concern adoption and child care.

Key Points

• This bill seeks to increase the role of additional district magistrates and district magistrates regarding the matters which concern adoption and child care.
• This Bill seeks to amend the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015.
• The Act states that only on the issuance of an adoption order by the civil court child adoption becomes final.
• The Bill will amend the rule and instead of the court, the additional district magistrate as well as district magistrate will issue adoption orders.

Offences committed by juveniles

The Act of 2015 has stated that the various offences which are committed by the juveniles of the country have to be categorised under three categories of serious offences, petty offences and heinous offences. Serious offences are those offences that allow imprisonment of three to seven years. Henceforth, serious offences will have maximum punishment which is more than seven years of imprisonment and for the minimum punishment it is less than seven years.

Why was this amendment necessary?

As of the month of July 2018, across the country, there were 629 pending adoption cases in various courts. In order to fasten the adoption proceedings this decision has been taken.

Month: Current Affairs - July, 2021