2. Definitions.- In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,

(a) "advisory board" means a Central or a State advisory board or a district and city level advisory board, as the case may be, constituted under section 62;

*[(aa) "adoption" means the process through which the adopted child is permanently separated from his biological parents and become the legitimate child of his adoptive parents with all the rights, privileges and responsibilities that are attached to the relationship.]

(b) "begging" means -

(i) soliciting or receiving alms in a public place or entering into any private premises for the purpose of soliciting or receiving alms, whether under any pretence;

(ii) exposing or exhibiting with the object of obtaining or extorting alms, any sore, wound, injury, deformity or disease, whether of himself or of any other person or of an animal;

(c) "Board" means a Juvenile Justice Board constituted under section 4;

(d) "child in need of care and protection" means a child -

(i) who is found without any home or settled place or abode and without any ostensible means of subsistence,

*[(ia) who is found begging, or who is either a street child or a working child,][

(ii) who resides with a person (whether a guardian of the child or not) and such person-

(a) has threatened to kill or injure the child and there is a reasonable likelihood of the threat being carried out, or

(b) has killed, abused or neglected some other child or children and there is a reasonable likelihood of the child in question being killed, abused or neglected by that person.

(iii) who is mentally or physically challenged or ill children or children suffering from terminal diseases or incurable diseases having no one to support or look after,

(iv) who has a parent or guardian and such parent or guardian is unfit or incapacitated to exercise control over the child,

(v) who does not have parent and no one is willing to take care of or whose parents have abandoned *[or surrendered] him or who is missing and run away child and whose parents cannot be found after reasonable inquiry,

(vi) who is being or is likely to be grossly abused, tortured or exploited for the purpose of sexual abuse or illegal acts,

(vii) who is found vulnerable and is likely to be inducted into drug abuse or trafficking,

(viii) who is being or is likely to be abused for unconscionable gains.

(ix) who is victim of any armed conflict civil commotion or natural calamity;

(e) "children's home" means an institution established by a State Government or by voluntary organization and certified by that Government under section 34;

(f) "Committee" means a Child Welfare Committee constituted under section 29;

(g) "competent authority" means in relation to children in need of care and protection a Committee and in relation to juveniles in conflict with law a Board;

(h) "fit institution" means a governmental or a registered non-governmental organization or a voluntary organization prepared to own the responsibility of a child and such organization is found fit by the *[State Government on the recommendation of the competent authority;]

(i) "fit persons" means a person, being a social worker or any other person who is prepared to own the responsibility of a child and is found fit by the competent authority to receive and take care of the child,

(j) "guardian", in relation to a child, means his natural guardian or any other person having the actual charge or control over the child and recognized by the competent authority as a guardian in course of proceedings before that authority;

(k) "juvenile" or "child" means a person who has not completed eighteenth year of age;

*[(l) "juvenile in conflict with law" means a juvenile who is alleged to have committed an offence and has not completed eighteenth year of age as on the date of commission of such offence;]

(m) Omitted vide Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Amendment Act, 2006, section 3

(n) "narcotic drug" and "psychotropic substance" shall have the meaning respectively assigned to them in the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 (61 of 1985);

(o) "observation home" means a home established by a State Government or by a voluntary organization and certified by that State Government under section 8 as an observation home for the juvenile in conflict with law;

(p) "offence" means an offence punishable under any law for the time being in force;

(q) "place of safety" means any place or institution (not being a police lockup or jail), the person incharge of which is willing temporarily to receive and take care of the juvenile and which, in the opinion of the competent authority, may be a place of safety for the juvenile;

(r) "prescribed" means prescribed by rules made under this Act;

(s) "probation officer" means an officer appointed by the State Government as a probation officer under the Probation of Offenders Act, 1958 (20 of 1958);

(t) "public place" shall have the meaning assigned to it in the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956 (104 of 1956);

(u) "shelter home" means a home or a drop-in-center set up under section 37;

(v) "special home" means an institution established by a State Government or by a voluntary organization and certified by that Government under section 9;

(w) "special juvenile police unit" means a unit of the police force of a State designated for handling of juveniles or children under section 63;

(x) "State Government" in relation to a Union territory, means the Administrator of the Union territory appointed by the President under article 239 of the Constitution;

(y) all words and expressions used but not defined in this Act and Defined in the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (2 of 1974), shall have the meaning respectively assigned to them in that Code.

*[Subsections (aa), d(ia), (l) inserted and sub-section d(v) and (h) modified vide Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Amendment Act, 2006, section 4]