The central government Thursday approved amendments in a bill on juvenile justice that will be placed in parliament in its current session along with two other bills.

A meeting of the cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh approved amendments to the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Amendment Bill 2005, which will be taken up in parliament next week.

"The proposed amendments will remove shortcomings in certain provisions of the present legislation," Finance Minster P. Chidambaram said after the cabinet meeting.

The cabinet also approved an amendment to the National Commission for Minority Education Institutions Act of 2004, he said.

The new proposed bill - the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions (Amendment) Bill 2005 - is intended to safeguard the rights of "minorities to establish educational institutions of their choice".

The cabinet also approved an amendment to the Small and Medium Industrial Development (Amendment) Bill and enactment of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Bill, 2005.

The cabinet decided to refer the amendments to a group of ministers that would be set up soon.