Child Labour Act: Supreme Court Orders Centre to Set Up Special Cell

The Supreme Court on 4 November directed the Centre to set up a special cell under the Ministry of Women and Child Development to monitor how the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act is enforced. A bench of Justices S V N Bhatti and N V Anjaria passed the order while disposing of a 2009 petition by the NGO Health for Millions, which had challenged parts of the 1986 law. The court said the ministry must also send directions to enforcement agencies through the states’ chief secretaries.

A Monitoring Cell, Not a New Law

The order does not add a penalty or a new rule. It puts a named office inside the ministry in charge of watching whether the amended Act is followed on the ground, from factories and workshops to roadside eateries. Reports of the order say the court wants “complete and strict adherence” and described monitoring of the Act as a continuing responsibility of the authorities. No deadline for setting up the cell was reported.

The 2016 Amendment Settled the Original Plea

The petition, W.P. (C) No. 501 of 2009, was filed under Article 32. It challenged a proviso to Section 3 of the 1986 Act that allowed children to work in beedi rolling in family workshops and in government-aided schools, and sought schooling and two mid-day meals for working children. Counsel Prashant Bhushan and Pranav Sachdeva appeared for the petitioner; Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati appeared for the Centre.

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The court held those reliefs no longer needed a ruling because the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Amendment Act, 2016 had changed the law. In force since 1 September 2016, it bars employment of children below 14 in all occupations and processes, with limited exceptions for non-hazardous family work after school or in vacations.

Case Closed, Oversight Continues

The petition has been disposed of, so there is no next hearing. What remains open is how quickly the ministry notifies the cell and what powers it is given. Neither the Outlook nor the India Legal report carried the order’s full text, and the Supreme Court has not yet uploaded it.

Other Supreme Court orders on 4 November are in our report on caste discrimination in prisons and in Daily Updates.

Source: Health for Millions vs Union of India, 2026 LiveLaw (SC) 1127. Also based on reporting by Outlook and India Legal.

Image: The Supreme Court of India building, New Delhi / Wikimedia Commons.