The Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh High Court has stepped in to draw a clear legal boundary around the powers of Child Welfare Committees, setting aside an order that had gone against a Srinagar-based private school. Sitting in Srinagar, Justice Sanjay Dhar made it plain that sympathy alone cannot expand statutory powers. The law, the court said, has its own limits.
Background
The case arose from a complaint filed by the father of a six-year-old girl, alleging that his daughter had been unlawfully expelled from Oasis Girls School, Gogji Bagh, after he raised objections about certain school charges. The complaint reached the Child Welfare Committee (CWC), Srinagar, via multiple channels, including the District Social Welfare Officer and the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights.
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Acting on the reference, the CWC conducted an enquiry and concluded that the child had been illegally expelled and discriminated against because of her parent’s actions. It went a step further, recommending that the education authorities take legal action against the school and ensure the child’s admission to another neighbourhood girls’ school.
The school challenged this order before the High Court, arguing that the Committee had no authority to entertain such a complaint in the first place.
Court’s Observations
After hearing the school’s counsel, the court examined the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, in some detail. Justice Dhar noted that Child Welfare Committees are meant to deal only with “children in need of care and protection,” a term carefully defined under the law.
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“The respondent child does not fall in any of the categories envisaged under the Act,” the bench observed, pointing out that the child had a parent who was actively pursuing her cause before several forums. She was neither abandoned nor neglected, nor exposed to abuse or vulnerability of the kind the law seeks to address.
The court also rejected the Committee’s reliance on a Supreme Court ruling dealing with sexual abuse in orphanages. That judgment, Justice Dhar clarified, could not be stretched to cover every grievance involving a child. Interpreting the law otherwise would, in the court’s words, push it to “tyrannical limits.”
Importantly, the court underlined that the CWC has no jurisdiction to recommend punitive action against institutions. Its role is confined to care, protection, and rehabilitation of children who genuinely fall within its statutory scope.
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Decision
Holding that the Child Welfare Committee had “arrogated to itself jurisdiction not vested in it under law,” the High Court allowed the school’s petition and set aside the impugned order dated 2 May 2024. With that, all recommendations made against the school stood quashed.
Case Title: Oasis Girls School, Gogji Bagh vs. MS XXX (Minor)
Case No.: Crl R No. 17/2024
Case Type: Criminal Revision Petition
Decision Date: 19 December 2025
