Safeguards under Indian Penal Code, 1860, Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act, Tort law, Contract law and partnership law

A fifteen-year-old in Kalyan signs a rent agreement for a room because her landlord says it is just a formality. Later a court asks whether she is bound. The same child, had she been taken from her home against her guardian's wishes, would be protected by a criminal section, and had her father died, a guardian would have been chosen under another Act. Different branches of law each look at the child from their own side. This topic collects those safeguards in the criminal law, the Hindu personal laws on adoption and guardianship, contract, partnership and tort, and then steps outside India to the international instruments that shaped them.

In two minutes

Indian law protects the child at several levels: the criminal law (BNS, which replaced the IPC) punishes harm to children, the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act and Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act give maintenance, adoption and guardianship rules, contract and partnership law shield a minor from bad bargains, and international instruments such as the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) supply the standards.

The rest of this chapter

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