Pulwama CRPF attack
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Mar 15: In the much publicized Pulwama attack in which 40 CRPF personnel attained martyrdom, Special Judge NIA Sunit Gupta has rejected the plea of accused Waiz-ul-Islam seeking declaration as juvenile.
The instant application was moved on behalf of the accused namely Waiz-ul-Islam whereby he has raised the claim of juvenility before the court. It was submitted before the court that Waiz-ul-Islam received last consignment of aluminum powder from Amazon was on January 22, 2019 whereas the date of birth of the accused was January 25, 2001 as such he was juvenile under the age of 18 years at the time of commission of offence therefore he may be declared as juvenile.
Further, it was submitted that he was entitled to be dealt with under the provisions of J&K Juvenile Justice ( Care & Protection of children ) Act 2013 read with Rules 2014.
After hearing both the sides, the court observed that the question is when two special acts have over riding effect upon other laws, in such eventuality the provisions of which law would prevail upon. “This controversy was set at rest by some of the High Courts.
“Though the High Courts were dealing with TADA cases and not of Unlawful Activities cases but it is to be observed that the language of non-abstante clause under Section 25 of TADA Act and the language of Section 48 of UA(P) Act are in juxtaposition and the same analogy can be applied in the present case”, the Special Judge NIA said, adding “otherwise also, it is to be observed that whenever there is conflict between two special statutes in such eventuality , the later in time would prevail upon the other”.
“In the present case, the J&K Juvenile Justice Act 2013 was came in force with effect from 25th April 2013 but this Act is merely the reproduction of earlier JJ Act 1997 with some modifications . On the other hand, the provisions of UA(P) Act have been mainly introduced in the year 2008 , otherwise the earlier act of Unlawful Activities Act 1967 was made redundant after the introduction of TADA Act and POTA Act”, the court said.
“But when all of these acts which deals with the terrorist activities were repealed by the legislature, in such eventuality a new Unlawful Activities Act was introduced in the year 2008 with introduction of some new draconian provisions which were not existing earlier in time”, the court said, adding “the Act is meant for dealing with the terrorist activities and therefore, no relaxation can be afforded in such like cases to allow the accused persons for availing any kind of such facility in order to escape from the criminal liability”.
With these observations, court declined the plea.
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