CJI: ‘Child in conflict with law’ describes circumstance, not identity

Chief Justice of India Surya Kant on Saturday (October 10, 2026) said names of 'children in conflict with the law' must be kept out of the news and off the internet, and the phrase describes a circumstance, not an identity.

He was speaking after inaugurating the National Annual Stakeholders' Consultation on "Ten Years of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015: Progress, Challenges and Priorities for the Next Decade" organised by the Juvenile Justice Committee of the Supreme Court in association with UNICEF.

The CJI said 10 years is a short time for a statute, but it is more than half of a childhood.

The 2015 Act, he said, makes a wager that a child given a second chance is far more likely to become a productive member of society than one branded as a criminal.

"The journey truly ends only when the past no longer casts a shadow over the future. For that, we must destroy old records on time, and keep the names of 'children in conflict with law' out of the news and off the internet, where they can linger for years," he said.

"Rehabilitation that ends at the gate of an institution is not rehabilitation at all, for reintegration means restoring a young person's place in family, school and community without stigma," the CJI said.

He said a 15-year-old brought before a Juvenile Justice Board in January 2016, when this Act came into force, would be aged about 25 today, and the first promise the Act made to that 15-year-old minor lies in the words it uses.

"This is no mere courtesy, because the phrase 'child in conflict with law' describes a circumstance, not an identity," he said.

The CJI said circumstance is usually a difficult one, for the stories of these young people so often speak of schooling cut short, families under strain, and poverty. Most of them come before the law for the first time.