Jammu and Kashmir High Court report to CJI nails activists' lies

The Chief Justice of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court in a report to the Supreme Court has dismissed the charge that citizens in Jammu and Kashmir are facing any difficulty to approach the High Court for getting their grievances redressed. However, on the issue of alleged detention of children as alleged in a PIL, the Court has sought a report from the Juvenile Justice Committee under the HC within a week.

In a report submitted to the Supreme Court this week, J&K HC Chief Justice Gita Mittal said that cases were being heard without any impediment and no litigant had complained of difficulty to access the High Court. The report came on orders of the apex court during the hearing on a PIL filed by two child rights activists who alleged that children are being detained in police stations but they could not access the HC during the present clampdown and instead approached the Supreme Court.

Taking serious view of the allegation levelled by the petitioners — Enakshi Ganguly (founder of NGO Haq – Centre for Child Rights) and Shanta Sinha (former Chairperson of National Commission for Protection of Child Rights), the bench headed by CJI Ranjan Gogoi on Monday had said, "You have said something very serious that people cannot access Courts. If required, I will go to Jammu & Kashmir and file this petition."

On Friday, when the Court took up the petition, the bench informed the petitioners that the HC report has rubbished their charge of difficulty to access the Court. But the Court happened to be aware of others reports giving a contrary position. The bench, also comprising Justices SA Bobde and S Abdul Nazeer said, "At this stage, we do not consider it appropriate to offer any comments on the said report."

Focussing instead on the issue brought forth by the two petitioners about detention of children, the bench directed the Juvenile Justice Committee constituted under the High Court to submit a report within a week after proper verification of whether any children aged 10-18 years were being detained by police.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said that such a direction would not be necessary as it would send a wrong message. He narrated one such incident where a boy was detained by police but was later transferred to the Juvenile Justice Board after learning that he was a minor. Mehta asked the Court to provide a copy of the petition for the Centre to better respond to the allegations.

The bench said, "The petition raises questions and issues beyond any individual. As the issues highlighted pertain to alleged detention of children, we direct the Juvenile Justice Committee to undertake an exercise with regard to the facts stated in the writ petition and revert to us within a week." The Court directed a copy of the petition to be sent to the Committee forthwith.