India’s chief justice urges lasting privacy and legal support for children

Chief Justice of India Surya Kant called on October 10 for children involved in the justice system to receive continuous legal representation and protection from lasting public exposure, placing rehabilitation at the centre of a national consultation.

The Supreme Court’s Juvenile Justice Committee organised the meeting with UNICEF to examine a decade of the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015. Kant said removing stigma required timely destruction of old records and keeping children’s names out of news reports and online material. Returning a child to family, school and community was part of rehabilitation, he said.

He highlighted gaps in access to lawyers. The National Legal Services Authority’s child-friendly scheme of 2024 provides for assistance at police stations and legal services clinics at Juvenile Justice Boards, but many boards still lack a clinic, according to Kant.

The chief justice urged legal services bodies to consider a separate group of trained defence lawyers for children. A dedicated lawyer should remain involved from the first encounter with police through the final decision and rehabilitation, he said.

Kant also advocated joint training for police, probation officers, board members and institutional staff, with psychologists involved. Independent assessments should track whether young people return to school, find work and avoid further proceedings, while protecting their privacy.

Justice B.V. Nagarathna said boards should respond to children’s capacity to develop and change. Citing an India Justice Report study published in November 2025, she said 55 percent of cases across 18 states and two Union Territories remained pending in the period ending October 2023. More than 55,000 children were awaiting decisions. Those figures describe the earlier period rather than the current backlog.