More than 1230 cases against juveniles were pending before courts in all the 22 districts of Jammu and Kashmir, the highest among them in Srinagar.
A total of 720 cases have been disposed off from January 2017 to June this year.
During a recently held conference on Juvenile Justice it was revealed that till June this year 1231 cases were lined up before the Chief Judicial Magistrates.
Srinagar topped the list with 175 cases pending before the CJM under the Juvenile Justice Act, followed by 119 in Kulgam, according to an official report on Implementation of Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2013 and Rules 2014 in the state of Jammu and Kashmir.
Similarly, 99 cases are pending in district Bandipora, 92 in Kupwara and 89 cases have piled up before the CJM Shopian.
Juvenile Justice Act stipulates that the cases pertaining to juveniles must be handed over to Juvenile Justice Boards (JJBs) meant to provide socio-legal rehabilitation and reformation but not punishment.
The aim of the law is to hold a child culpable for their actions, not through punishment but by counseling to understand their actions and persuade them against criminal activities in future.
Juvenile Justice Boards were made functional by the government earlier this year.
However, in the first phase, only 14 boards were set up, but cases were still in the process of being handed over to respective CJMs.
The CJM’s responsibility is to review pendency of the cases after every six months and direct them to increase the frequency of JJB sittings.
The report on the Juvenile Justice also states that in Budgam 78 cases under JJA were pending, three out of them before the district and sessions judge and 75 before the CJM.
In Anantnag 66 cases are pending and in Pulwama 44.
Similarly, In Ganderbal 28 cases are pending before the CJM while as none in Baramulla.
In Jammu also cases against juveniles are piled up before the chief judicial magistrates.
In district Jammu 83 cases against the juveniles are pending – 80 before CJM Jammu and three before Munsiff R.S Pura.
Next on the list is Rajouri. There are at least 85 cases of juveniles pending before CJM in this district of Jammu region. In Kathua 82 cases are lying before CJM.
In Poonch 51 cases are pending, 39 in Udhampur, 25 in Samba, 25 in Doda, 17 in Reasi, 16 in Ramban and 15 in Kishtwar.
Similarly in Kargil three cases are pending, while none was listed in Leh.