Sanjeev Prakash Sharma, J. - (1.) The question which is required to be dealt in the present case is the manner in which the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2015 (hereinafter referred to as "the Act of 2015") shall be applied to the petitioner societies and the institutions run by them.
(2.) While the petitioners have assailed action of the respondents in having seized their premises and having conducted investigation of their record and also of other societies being under overall control of the petitioner-Society, and have questioned the action of confiscation of their record from their Head Office as well as of demanding details which the petitioners stated to be not relevant for the purpose of the Act of 2015, the respondents have supported their action.
(3.) Petitioner-Emmanuel Orphanage Society and their other petitioner societies, who have jointly filed the present writ petitions, claim to have been carrying out various activities of running schools and hostels. They admit to have been running orphanages and children homes in the past. It is also their case that they had earlier applied under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000 (hereinafter referred to as "the Act of 2000") for registration as children home and also under the new Act of 2015 but the respondents have not registered their children home and ultimately they decided to resolve to close down children home and orphanage vide resolution dated 13.02.2016 and conveyed the decision to the Authorities on 20.06.2016 whereupon taking into consideration the decision of the petitioner, the pending application of the petitioner was rejected on 11.07.2016. It is their case that all the children who were in their children home were taken back by their respective parents and there was no child in the children home. It is also submitted that the said activity of children home thereafter was taken by another society namely Jeevan Asha Girls Samiti and the petitioners had no connection to the said Samiti. In spite of the aforesaid, the respondents have conducted a raid in the premises owned by the petitioners'-societies and have taken away the entire record from their head office and have also threatened the responsible officers of their hostels and have demanded several documents from the petitioners vide their letter dated 17.01.2018 which relates to the minutes of meeting of Governing Body, their audited balance sheet and certain other information which were not required to be disclosed to the respondents.;