Age proof: Juvenile offenders may get ‘delayed birth registration’

During the hearing before the bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice RS Endlaw, Delhi government counsel Zubeda Begum also informed the court that the jail visitors board, which was to be constituted to keep an eye on the welfare of prisoners and look into ensuring that all regulations were being followed, has now been notified.

“The L-G has signed on the final decision and it has been notified,” the lawyer said. Advocate Anant Asthana, counsel for the petitioner, and advocates for NCPCR, however, claimed that the guidelines and the board were only “draft” proposals and had not been formalised.

The directions to create a jail visitors panel had been given by the court in an order in 2012. Since then, the government had been pulled up on several occasions for its failure to constitute a board. The court had also warned of coercive action against senior government officials for the repeated delay.

The court on Wednesday directed the government counsel to file a proper affidavit with the final visitors’’ board as well as the notified guidelines for the board.

The NCPCR has also filed an affidavit with data relating to jail visits by NCPCR panels. In its affidavit, the child rights body stated that over 2,600 “possible” juveniles had been identified in Delhi in the past two years, of which 198 were found to be juveniles. During the hearing, NCPCR counsel Aagney Sail and DLSA OSD SS Rathi also informed the court that due to the delay in constitution of the visitors board by the government, the DLSA and NCPCR had been forced to conduct the tasks. “The burden has fallen on the judicial officers. We are supposed to visit the jails to provide legal awareness, we cannot take up welfare issues,” Rathi said. The court is now expected to look into the issues raised in the NCPCR and DLSA affidavits on the next date of hearing in May.