While the Maharashtra government informed the Bombay high Court on Wednesday that it has issued abandoned certificates to two girls, the court reiterated that there is no distinction between orphaned and abandoned children under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015
A division bench of Justices Gautam Patel and Neela Gokhale was hearing a petition filed by NEST India Foundation, a charitable trust, which sought directions to authorities to issue certificates to two girls declaring them as abandoned children. It also sought that the girls be considered them under the 1% orphan quota for admission to undergraduate health science courses. The girls have been staying in the home since 2008 when they were 4 and 5 years old. Their mothers hardly visited them.
Additional government pleader Jyoti Chavan said that the Child Welfare Committee has issued abandoned certificates to the girls.
However, the Foundation’s advocate, Dr Abhinav Chandrachud, said under the GR, educational reservations are only for orphaned children and not abandoned children. Hence these certificates would not help the girls.
The bench then reiterated that JJ Act does not differentiate between orphaned and abandoned children and that the court would clarify the same.
In the order, the bench noted that while “‘abandoned’ certificates were issued to the two young ladies, the reservations mention only ‘orphan’ children”.
“We believe there is an answer to be found within the statute. We do not expect statutory interpretation from the CWC,” added the court while keeping the petition for hearing on March 2.
During the hearing on February 10, the HC rapped the government for saying that benefits given to orphaned children cannot be given to abandoned children as a government resolution (GR) makes a distinction between them. The HC had then directed the CWC to decide the application filed by the two girls.
