Course Description
Relation to the programme curriculum
This is a standalone clinical elective.

Approach to the course
The course combines a classroom component with a clinic component.

The classroom component begins with the theoretical foundations of juvenile justice and child protection. Students examine the philosophies and principles underlying the juvenile justice system, key concepts of juvenile deviant behaviour and delinquency, and the psycho-social factors contributing to vulnerability and delinquent conduct. The course then moves to the working of the system to understand the nature of the inquiry before the Juvenile Justice Board and the Children’s Court, legal representation of children, the intersection of the POCSO Act, 2012 with adolescent sexuality and the JJ Act, 2015, child participation and the best interest principle, and restorative justice and its possible adaptation within the Indian juvenile justice framework.

The clinic component is facilitated through the Juvenile Justice Clinic at NLSIU and comprises ten hours of structured clinical work. First, students will undertake two exposure visits (4 hours), one to a Children’s Home and one to an Observation Home. These visits provide an opportunity to interact with children in need of care and protection (CNCPs) and children in conflict with law (CICLs), giving students first-hand insight into the care, protection, rehabilitation, and support services provided by child care institutions and enhancing their understanding of the child protection system in practice.

Second, six hours of clinical work comprising three exercises have been planned: (i) a Case Compendium and Argument Development exercise, in which student groups compile and analyse case law on selected thematic issues under the JJ Act, 2015 and the POCSO Act, 2012 and develop rights-based arguments for use before the Juvenile Justice Board and the Children’s Court; (ii) a Critical Review of Social Investigation Reports (SIRs) handled by the project in the course of representing children in conflict with law; and (iii) foundational research towards an ICP Resource Manual, a practitioner-oriented resource on Individual Care Plans to be built incrementally across terms, on the model of the Clinic’s SIR Practitioner’s Manual. The exercises are supported by guest lectures from practitioners and culminate in clinic work presentation sessions at which students present and defend their work.

In the course of their clinical engagement, students will have access to confidential information concerning children and their families. Students will not be permitted to disclose any such information outside the clinic setting and will be required to sign a confidentiality undertaking prior to commencing the exposure visits and the clinical exercises.