The Supreme Court recently directed the Secretary of the Ministry of Women and Child Development to constitute a special cell to monitor the implementation of the Child and Adolescent Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986, as amended in 2016, and ensure strict compliance with its provisions.

The Court also directed the Centre to issue instructions to enforcement agencies through the respective Chief Secretaries of States to ensure effective implementation of the law.

A bench comprising Justice SVN Bhatti and Justice NV Anjaria passed the directions while disposing of a writ petition challenging the provisions of the Child and Adolescent Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986, particularly Section 3, which originally prohibited the employment of children only in specified hazardous occupations.

The petition was disposed of after the Court took note of the 2016 amendment to the Act, which introduced a blanket prohibition on the employment of children below 14 years of age in all occupations and processes, subject to limited exceptions.

The amendment permits children to assist in non-hazardous family enterprises after school hours or during vacations, subject to the statutory conditions.

The bench observed that the prayers raised in the writ petition no longer survived for consideration in view of the legislative changes. However, it emphasised that the effective implementation of the amended law remained a responsibility of the authorities.

In light of these observations, the bench ordered:

"We take note of the writ prayers, the orders passed by this Court and also the amendment to the parent Act. We are of the view that the prayer, as made, in the writ petition does not survive for further consideration but what remains to be taken note of is giving complete and full effect to the changes introduced by way of amendment Act No. 35 of 2016. Keeping in perspective the above brief narrative, we are persuaded not to examine the prayers as made but we take note of the amendment Act No. 35 of 2016 and note that it shall be the responsibility of the respondent(s) to ensure complete and strict compliance of the mandate of the Child and Adolescent Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986 including the amended provisions.

For the said purpose, with a view to preserving the rights of children/ adolescents, we direct the second respondent to constitute a special cell, continue to monitor the implementation of the provisions of the Act and also issue directions to the enforcing agencies through the respective Chief Secretaries of the State, as amended through the Act No.35 of 2016."

Appearances: For Petitioner(s) Mr. Prashant Bhushan- 515, AOR Mr. Pranav Sachdeva, Adv. Mr. Sanyam Jain, Adv. Ms. Mishra Divya Santosh, Av. Ms. Khushboo Singhal, Adv. Mr. P. Rohit Ram, Adv.

For Respondent(s) Ms. Aishwarya Bhati, A.S.G. (N.P.) Ms. Hemadri Sharma, Adv. Ms. Anupriya Srivastava, Adv. Ms. Mitali, Adv. Mr. Madhav Sinhal, Adv. Ms. Sansriti Pathak, Adv. Mr. Chitrangda Rashtaravara, Adv. Ms. Rajeshwari Shankar, Adv. Mr. Amrish Kumar, AOR Dr. Arun Kumar Yadav, Adv. Mr. B.L.N.Sanjit, Adv. Mr. K. Rajeev, AOR Ms. Niveditha R Menon, Adv. Mr. Aditya Verma, Adv. Mr. Tarun Kumar, Adv.