(1) Any individual who is fit to temporarily receive a child for care, protection or treatment, for a period as may be necessary, may be recognised by the Board or the Committee as a fit person.
(2) The Board or the Committee may identify a panel of persons on the basis of their credentials, respectability, expertise, professional qualifications, experience of dealing with children and their willingness to receive the child and shall recognise them as fit persons for the purposes of the Act:
Provided that such a person should not have been accused of an offence under the Act or have been involved in any immoral act or in act of child abuse or employment of child labour or in an offence involving moral turpitude.
(3) The Board or the Committee may also appoint any person as a fit person on need basis for a child or children after verifying the credentials of such person, and wherever possible, after getting police verification done on such a person .
(4) The Board or the Committee may, if dissatisfied with the standard of care and protection provided or for any other reason, at any time, by a reasoned order withdraw the recognition of the person as a fit person from the date specified in the order of the Board or the Committee.
(5) Where the recognition of a fit person is withdrawn by the Board or the Committee, intimation of the same shall be sent to the Children’s Court, Special Juvenile Police Unit and District Child Protection Unit and the child placed with such a fit person may be placed by the Board or the Committee or the Children’s Court to another fit person or with a fit facility or any Child Care Institution.
(6) A list of fit persons recognised by the Board or the Committee shall be kept in the office of the Board and the Committee and the Children’s Court and be sent to the Special Juvenile Police Unit, the District Child Protection Unit and the State Child Protection Society.
(7) The Board or the Committee or the Children’s Court may place the child with a fit person in cases wherever required, including where the child cannot be sent to a Child Care Institution due to distance and/ or odd time.
(8) The fit person shall:
i) have the capacity and willingness to receive the child; and ii) provide basic services for care and protection of the child.
(9) The Board or the Committee or the Children’s Court, depending on the need of the child and in consultation with the fit person shall determine the period for which a child shall remain with the fit person.
(10) The child shall not be placed with a fit person for a period exceeding thirty days and in such cases where the child requires further care, the Committee may consider the placement of the child in foster care or may consider other rehabilitative alternatives for the child. The Board or the Children’s Court in such cases where the period of placement of the child may exceed thirty days, refer the matter to the Committee for further orders in respect of the child.