National News

Pending Cases in Juvenile Justice Boards

November 28 , 2025 15 hrs 0 min 20 0

More than 50% of cases before 362 Juvenile Justice Boards (JJBs) remained pending as of 31 October 2023.
JJBs are constituted in 92% of 765 districts, but 24% of Boards were not fully staffed, and 30% lacked attached legal aid clinics.
Less than half of 1,00,904 cases filed with JJBs had been disposed of by October 2023.
Each JJB had an average of 154 pending cases annually, with vacancies, inadequate funds, and weak data monitoring increasing workload.
The India Justice Report (IJR) study found irregular public data transfer, poor inter-agency coordination, and gaps in child-centric service delivery.
In 2023, 40,036 juveniles were apprehended in 31,365 cases under the Indian Penal Code and Special Laws.
Over 75% of these juveniles were aged between 16 and 18 years.
Odisha had the highest pendency rate at 83%, while Karnataka had the lowest at 35%.
IJR filed over 250 Right to Information (RTI) requests in 21 states to collect data on JJB functioning, highlighting the lack of centralised monitoring.