The court granted time to the authorities to respond
A woman approached the Delhi High Court on Friday claiming that her minor daughter was subjected cruelty and forcibly converted to another religion in a child care institution where she was remanded by the Child Welfare Committee (CWC).
A bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh issued notice and sought response from the Centre and Delhi government on the petition which has also sought a compensation of Rs 5 crore for violation of fundamental rights of the petitioner and her minor daughter.
The court granted time to the authorities to respond and listed the matter for further hearing on April 9.
The plea challenged various provisions of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) Act, JJ Model Rules, pertaining to power, functions and composition of CWCs.
The plea alleged that provisions of the JJ Act confer arbitrary powers on the CWC that led to violation of the fundamental rights of the woman and her daughter.
It claimed that the woman's minor daughter was trapped by social workers of two NGOs and a false FIR of sexual abuse of the child was registered and the girl was produced before the CWC after five days, in contravention to the JJ Model Rules.
The plea alleged that the child was arbitrarily sent into institutional care, where she was indoctrinated in Christianity without her mother's consent and was also subjected to cruelty and exploitation for more than five months.
The petition challenged the grant of exclusive powers on CWCs to deal with all proceedings relating to children in need of care and protection under the JJ Act and termed it arbitrary.
It further said that Rule 55 (2) of the Model Rules is arbitrary as there is no way a child in need of care and protection placed under institutional care can reach the children's court for relief on being subjected to cruelty inside the institution.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)