Srinagar, Oct 6: The 2005 LLB batch student of School of Law, Kashmir University, DrKhair-ul-Nisa, has become first scholar to complete the research on Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2015 in J&K.
Nisa is currently member of Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) Srinagar. She completed her LLM degree in 2008 in criminal law with specialization in juvenile justice system.
As part of the systematic approach to identifying focus area, Nisa first conducted scans across a range of issues to become familiar with ground reality and then focused on adjudicatory and rehabilitation mechanism of Juvenile Justice System.
“When I was a student, I found violation of child rights in J&K. During my research, I found these children are more likely to become children in conflict with law. Therefore, I choose to work on Juvenile Justice System to contribute in implementation of child rights in J&K,” Nisa told Greater Kashmir.
Nisa, officially received her doctorate of philosophy in July 2021. During her five year long research, Nisa opted for work, titled “Adjudicative and Rehabilitative Mechanism under the Juvenile Justice System in India with special reference to J&K: A critical evaluation.”
“More specifically, my PhD was about to find out working of Child Protection society, Juvenile Justice Boards, Child Welfare Committee and District Child Protection Units, Role of Police vis a vis Juvenile Justice System, Functioning of voluntarily organizations vis a vis Juvenile Justice System, functioning of childcare institutions, and conditions of child in the child care institutions,” she said.
“It was a time when even I find some stakeholders having decimal knowledge about juvenile justice system,” she said.
“The J&K govt has off late has taken pains to establish the necessary infrastructure for effective and meaningful implementation of Juvenile justice system. These measures, however, were taken only after the intervention of the J&K High Court,” she said while quoting her research.
She said that after rolling out of Integrated Child Protection Scheme, the structures like JJB, Child Welfare Committee, Special Juvenile police Unit, District Child Protection Unit have been constituted to augment the necessary wherewithal for effective implementation of the legislation.
Her research was halted in 2019, post abrogation of Article 370 due to internet suspension and communication blockade. “Then I moved to Indian Law Institute New Delhi for collection of material which otherwise I could have obtained through internet. Further, I had to review my research after State Act on juvenile system was replaced by central Act. It delayed my completion of research by a year,” she said.
Nisa, completed her Phd under the supervision of former Dean and Head School of Law, KU, Prof Abdul LatiefWani and Prof Fareed Ahmad Rafiqi.
“Yes, Dr Nisa is first scholar to complete the research on Juvenile Justice (Protection and Care of Children) Act 2015 and model rules 2016,” confirmed an official at School of Law, KU.