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23/02/2010 - Daily Mirror |
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| Ministry to set up separate Juvenile Courts | |||
By Lakmal Sooriyagoda |
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Justice and Law Reforms Minister Milinda Moragoda said yesterday that around twenty percent of the child related court cases are pending for the past 11 years. “Nearly 5,032 out of 14,966 (26.69%) pending cases in the High Courts are child related cases. Out of them, nearly 19.32% of cases are pending since 1999. That is a serious situation,” the minister said. He said that his ministry had made arrangements to establish a separate Juvenile Court to hear offences committed by children at the Colombo High Court premises and construction work of the concerned building had already completed. The government has made these arrangements due to the complex nature of child related cases,” the minister said. |
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The Ministry of Justice and Law Reform had appointed a committee headed by Supreme Court Justice Shiranee Tilakawardene to look into the issues relating to Juvenile Justice. The committee had recommended to relocate the Youthful Offenders’ Training School and Rehabilitation Centre to the Ambepussa area and to establish Children’s Magistrate Courts throughout the country. |
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He added that separate judges are also going to be recruited together with trained officers to serve in these courts and resources have already been allocated in order to expedite the child related cases, under 16 years of age.