These petitions have been filed to direct the respective Juvenile Justice Boards to accept the surrender of the petitioners and consider the bail applications on merits on the same day of their surrender in Crime Nos. 644 of 2015, 25 of 2016 and 56 of 2016 on the file of the respective respondent police.

2. Since a common question of law arises in all these petitions, they have been clubbed together for adjudication.

3. The petitioners in these cases are admittedly juveniles in conflict with law and they have been arrayed as accused for various offences which will be discussed when the individual cases are being dealt with.

4. It is uniformly contended by the respective counsel that, if a juvenile accused is arrested and produced before the Board, he is placed in the custody of an Observation Home till a report from the Probation Officer is obtained and this causes undue prejudice to the juvenile inasmuch as he is likely to come into contact with those involved in serious offences in the Observation Home, which will be detrimental to his interest. Therefore, the counsel pleaded that, on surrender of a juvenile before the Board, the Board should consider the bail application on