New Delhi, Nov. 12: The Centre’s apex child rights body has sought investigations in all jails of the country to ensure no juveniles are held there because of wrong age records.

The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has written to National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) requesting it to conduct the probe.

The letter was sent last week following surprise visits by NCPCR teams to jails in Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Rajasthan over the past few months. Minors accused of crimes must be tried under the Juvenile Justice Act, 2000, and should be kept in special correctional homes.

But the NCPCR teams came across several violations and found juveniles in the jails. Many of them complained their age had been wrongly recorded during investigations.

“Among the undertrials as well as convicted inmates in these jails (were) numerous inmates (who) claimed they were below the 18 on the date of offence they have been accused of. The majority of them did not have any proof of age. It is a serious matter as children cannot be lodged in jails due to wrong recording of age,” the NCPCR letter says.

It has drawn special attention to Jharkhand’s Dhanbad jail where the NCPCR teams said a number of juveniles were languishing with higher ages indicated on their documents.

“The above scenario reflects non-compliance of crucial provisions of the Juvenile Justice Act. Therefore, the commission recommends a thorough ‘age determination’ exercise of all suspected youths in prisons in the entire state (Jharkhand) in three weeks,” the NCPCR wrote to the state chief secretary. This letter has been attached in the request to the NHRC.

Sources said the NHRC had already asked for compliance reports on the act from all states within four weeks.

The NCPCR probe push comes days after Delhi High Court rapped the state government over 178 minors found in 10 jails of the capital and lack of boards to monitor the matter.