‘Sorry that SC has to resolve this’: Judges on national, Bengal child rights panels’ tussle

Ruling on clash of jurisdictions between NCPCR and West Bengal panel, SC says ‘institutions set up to protect children have virtually forsaken them in a fight’.

File image of the Supreme Court of India | Photo: Manisha Mondal | ThePrint

New Delhi: It’s not routine for the Supreme Court to state in a verdict that it has “better things to do”, or to begin the judgment with a lament like, “It’s so sad!”

But this is exactly what the court said Monday in a ruling that it delivered on an issue of clash of jurisdictions between the national child rights body and the West Bengal state commission for child rights.

“…institutions set up to protect children have virtually forsaken them in a fight over their so called jurisdictions,” said a bench of Justice Deepak Gupta and Justice Aniruddha Bose.

“We are sorry that this court has to spend its time resolving such disputes,” said the two-judge bench.

The case 

The Supreme Court’s ruling came nearly three years after news reports surfaced in February 2017 that a child care institution in West Bengal’s Jalpaiguri was involved in large-scale trafficking of children.

On 3 March 2017, the National Commission of Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) took cognisance of the matter and sent a team of officials four days later. A request was made to officials of the West Bengal Commission of Protection of Child Rights (WBCPCR) to provide with information related to the case. This wasn’t adhered to.

The NCPCR, thereafter, summoned the additional director general of police (ADGP), CID, to appear before the national commission. However, the ADGP moved the Calcutta High Court challenging the jurisdiction of NCPCR.

The HC stayed the NCPCR’s direction on 29 August 2017, noting that the state commission had already taken note of the matter on 24 February and, thus, NCPCR had no jurisdiction.

The top court Monday ruled on NCPCR’s appeal against the Calcutta HC order.

What the court ordered

In its judgment, the Supreme Court held that WBCPCR had not commenced any investigation before 7 March. The court added that while NCPCR should usually refrain from interfering when a state is looking into a case, nothing stops the national body from looking at larger questions that may impact incidents of abuse of child rights.

But the court didn’t stop here. While noting that the state body didn’t cooperate with NCPCR, the top court said it “somehow felt” that the national commission was trying to settle scores.

“We somehow feel that the National Commission was also more interested in settling scores with the State Commission or with the officials of the State Government rather than ameliorating the plight of the children,” said the judgment.

The court was also critical of how the clash arose only because “persons manning the institutions had put their own interests over the interest of children”.

“We see no reason why there should be any disharmony and lack of coordination between these two institutions. This non-cooperation and lack of coordination can only occur when the persons manning the institutions put their own interests over the interest of the children.

“It is only when those in-charge of such commissions give themselves so much importance that they forget that they are the creation of statute, the only purpose of which is to protect children,” ruled the court.

The two-judge bench added that the West Bengal ADGP, CID, didn’t cooperate with NCPCR, and his plea before the Calcutta HC was not required.

The top court also noted that the child welfare committee, often the first point of probe in cases of child abuse, is not appropriately set up across West Bengal. Hence, it has directed the Calcutta HC to take this up as a suo motu PIL.