Ahmedabad
: Gujarat High court today observe
that none of the magistrates in the Juvenile courts of the
state was trained in child psychology as required by the
Juvenile Justice Act (JJA).
The observation was made by the division bench of Chief
Justice S J Mukhopadhaya and Akil Kureshi, who also issued
notice to the High Court administration to apprise the court
about status training of magistrates of Juvenile courts.
The court was hearing a petition by an NGO Lok Adhikar
Sangh filed in 1993, where it had contended that there was no
proper infrastructure facilities including manpower available
for implementation of various legislations pertaining to
children in Gujarat.
When the question of training of magistrates in the
Juvenile courts or remand homes was raised by the special
advocate appointed by the court Anand Yagnik, Justice
Mukhopadhaya said he has been informed that "none of the
Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) in juvenile courts
across the 26 district of the state was trained in child
psychology."
According to Yagnik, all magistrates of juvenile courts
have to be trained in child psychology as per the JJA.
Further hearing on the matter has been scheduled for
September 28.
PTI
