V.RAMASUBRAMANIAN, J.

I. Background Facts leading to these writ petitions:

An Institution by name Siloam Evangelical Mission (India) Limited, incorporated in the year 1988 as a Charitable Company under Section 25 of the Companies Act, 1956 and which changed its name as Good Shepherd Evangelical Mission Private Limited, is running several ministries. One of the ministries run by them is 'Mose Ministries', which is the petitioner in one of the writ petitions on hand. It is running a Destitute Home for girl children, who are said to have been abandoned by their parents. For the sake easy reference, we shall refer to this Mose Ministries, as 'the institution'.

2. According to the said institution, it was started in December 1994, in Usilampatty which attained notoriety for the high rate of female infanticide prevalent there. The institution claims to have saved several new born female babies from the jaws of death in Usilampatty and they shifted their home to Tiruchirappalli later. The institution obtained temporary registration under the provisions of the Orphanages and Other Charitable Homes (Supervision & Control) Act, 1960 in the year 2008. But, they did not obtain any registration either under the Juvenile Justice Act, 1986 or under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000 (Central Act 56 of 2000).

3. It appears that only in the year 2010, the said institution applied for registration under Central Act 56 of 2000 and the application appears to have been returned for rectification of certain defects. It is not known whether those defects were rectified or not. But, the fact remains that so far the institution has not obtained registration.

4. Therefore, the District Social Welfare Officer, after the inspection conducted by a team on 01.08.2014, issued a notice dated 20.08.2014, calling upon the institution to show cause as to why it should not ordered to be closed down. The Institution sent a reply, but the District Social Welfare Officer was not satisfied with the reply. Therefore, a second notice followed by a third notice were issued.

5. Eventually, the District Social Welfare Officer lodged a First Information Report in Crime No.548 of 2015 on 25.08.2015 for alleged offences under Section 20(2) of the Tamil Nadu Hostels and Home for Women and Children (Regulation) Act, 2014 and Section 23 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000. The District Social Welfare Officer also passed an order dated 03.09.2015, directing the said institution to hand-over all girl children aged above 18 years to the District Social Welfare Officer and the girls below the age of 18 years to the Child Welfare Committee.

6. Challenging the said order, the institution has come up with a writ petition in W.P.(MD)No.16273 of 2015. On 08.09.2015, a learned Judge of this Court before whom the writ petition came up for admission, directed the Government Advocate to take notice and to file a counter within a week. The learned Judge also granted an interim order to maintain status-quo. The said order was extended from time to time by the learned Judge.

7. In the meantime, a Non-Governmental Organisation by name CHANGE India, which claims to be a Centre for Advocacy and Research, came up with a public interest litigation in W.P.(MD)No.20895 of 2015 seeking the issue of a writ of mandamus to direct the Central Bureau of Investigation to investigate into the trafficking and illegal confinement of 89 girl children by the aforesaid institution and for a consequential direction to the Government of Tamil Nadu to restore the girl children to their respective parents. It is the case of the PIL petitioner that they have already filed a Public Interest Litigation in W.P. No.27263 of 2014 on the file of the Principal Bench of this court with regard to the statutory inspection and registration of all Child Care Inst