Children in Conflict With Law Need a Second Chance, Not a Criminal Label: CJI

Chief Justice of India Surya Kant on Saturday stressed the need to protect the identity of children in conflict with the law, saying the phrase describes a circumstance rather than an identity, and called for prioritising rehabilitation over retribution.

Speaking at a national consultation marking 10 years of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, organised by the Supreme Court’s Juvenile Justice Committee in association with UNICEF, the CJI said the legislation offered children a second chance to rebuild their lives. He said names of such children must be kept out of news reports and the internet, while old records should be destroyed in a timely manner to prevent their past from casting a shadow over their future.

“Our answer to such a predicament is restoration, not retribution,” Kant said, noting that many children who come into conflict with the law have experienced disrupted schooling, family difficulties and poverty. He emphasised that rehabilitation must extend beyond institutional care to ensure reintegration into families, schools and communities without stigma.

The CJI also highlighted gaps in legal assistance, pointing out that several Juvenile Justice Boards lacked legal services clinics despite provisions under the 2024 child-friendly legal services scheme. He called for dedicated defence lawyers to assist children from the police station through judicial proceedings and rehabilitation.

Kant further urged coordinated training for police personnel, judicial officers, lawyers and probation officers, alongside psychologists, to improve their understanding of adolescence, trauma and poverty. Supreme Court judge Justice B V Nagarathna cited a November 2025 India Justice Report study, which found that 55 per cent of cases before Juvenile Justice Boards across 18 states and two Union Territories were pending in the year ending October 2023.

She said more than 55,000 children were awaiting decisions, while 111 of 470 responding Boards lacked a complete bench. Stressing that the Boards should not function as miniature criminal courts, Nagarathna said society must understand children's anxieties and distress. “When a child breaks the law, the law must not break the child,” she said.