D S Shubham
The Union Cabinet’s recent clearance to the amendments to the Juvenile Justice Act 2000 for presenting the draft Bill in the Parliament to be passed to let the delinquent juvenile between 16 and 18 years to be tried as an adult (ordinary criminals) for heinous crimes such as murder, rape and dacoity, is the need of hour to accept the reduction of delinquent juvenility age forthwith by all of us especially for the reasons that for the last more than a decade the exposure of our Indian children to the present social, educational, environmental, economical, scientific and technological advancements has made them physically, mentally, psychologically, biologically and emotionally over matured, though unfortunately less constructively and more destructively.
Present culture has made every child of our society not only independent robot and android, but destructively and directly put him/her straightway in adulthood without letting him/her pass through the natural process of evolution himself/herself to achieve adulthood and maturity, step by step. Now, Child of 16 years is more matured than the adult of even 20 years of olden times. Earlier in natural process, the nature, parents, elders and teachers used to inculcate and instill right things in the mind of child to become matured adult and accordingly also the criminal and anti social activities were also at low rates.
It is right time that we all should welcome this amended step of our government so that a strong message must go not only to delinquent juveniles of our society but also to their guardian to take proper care of their children to educate and guide them to live like a law abiding citizen failing which there can be serious penal consequences.
But the serious concern or lacunae in the proposed Bill is that our Government must also legally anticipate and ensure that delinquent juvenile should not again be allowed to manipulate to avoid or protract the trial at any stage by challenging the assessment and recommendation of the Juvenile Justice Board, once it is a legally constituted quorum.
Moreover, some critics of this amendment must not be so worried about the welfare of the childhood of delinquent juveniles. Their concern can well be protected if our government, social organizations, school authorities and most particularly the parents of children take this responsibility of shaping the Mentality, Morality, and Maturity (three Ms) of our children to make them best law abiding citizens as otherwise too nowadays our children even of 14/15 years are matured enough for doing all the commendable acts which even we parents hesitate viz. driving bikes, cars, surfing the worldwide nets, on line purchasing, net ticketing filling up of different forms, handling the smart phones, traveling on their own in trains, aero planes etc.
Also, there are prodigy children even of less than ten years in our society who do commendable bravery acts and that is why every year at least amazing brave hearts who show incredible courage in the face of adversity or danger, some of whom even lose their own lives while helping others, are acknowledged for their extra ordinary courage and presented the National Bravery Awards on Republic Day.
Anyway, we cannot lose sight of the fact that the welfare of even of delinquent juvenile is paramount and he/she needs all counseling, education, protection and rehabilitation, but for the larger interest of society and particularly the swift increase in the juvenile crimes particularly of rape / rape and murder in majority by the juveniles of even 16/17 years in filmy/heroic styles without bothering about the life and dignity of victims it is the need of hour to deal with it with iron hand. It is this 16 to 18 years age when the children of both sexes are normally allowed to intermingle at schools, homes, relations and functions generally considering them as little children but now because of great revolution in electronic media and communication, it is these children who are misusing this concession thereby compelling the elders to wake up to curb this menace collectively.
Otherwise also, the proposed amendment is only for heinous offences the sentence of which is seven years or more viz. crime of rape, murder and dacoity etc. Whereas in other offences where sentence is less than seven years there is no change in the Act and for these offences delinquent juvenile as earlier legislated is to be given rehabilitative and corrective treatment. So, all of us may say that these small offences may be committed accidentally at the spur of moment without any ill will, premeditation and deliberation, but for heinous offences like rape, murder and dacoity etc we must accept that these are always committed by showing enough maturity, planning, deliberation and taking the risk factor of penal consequences.
Otherwise too, our government is emphatically claiming that the draft Bill proposing amendments strikes a fine balance between “the demands of the stakeholders asking for continued protection of rights of juveniles and the popular demand of citizens in the light of increasing incidence of heinous crimes by young boys.” This all is in pursuance of a recent direction of our supreme court on April 6 this year to our government to re-visit the law so that a juvenile cannot get away with rape and murder by claiming he is too young to understand the consequences of his crime. Supreme Court had expressed concern by holding, “There can be a situation where a commission of an offence may be totally innocuous and harmless or emerging from a circumstance where a young boy is not aware of the consequences. But in cases of rape, murder or dacoity, which are heinous crimes, it is extremely difficult to conceive that the juvenile was not aware of the consequences,”
So after a revisit to this act on the direction of our supreme court by our government, it is the right via media to empower the Juvenile Justice Board consisiting of psychologists and social experts, to carry out a psychological assessment to determine if the perpetrator of a heinous crime, aged between 16-18 had acted as a ‘child’ or as an ‘adult’ ensuring that the rights of the juvenile are duly protected if he has committed the crime as a child. Accordingly, the trial of the case then shall take place as a juvenile or as an adult on the basis of this assessment and recommendation of board.
In the last but not the least, we must know that this legislation is an extremely “progressive legislation” and it attracted always timely amendments and at present also this is the timely amendment and in future too it shall be amended as per the need of hour then and there. Earlier in start, the first legislation on juvenile justice in India came in 1850 with the Apprentice Act which required that children between the ages of 10-18 convicted in courts to be provided vocational training as part of their rehabilitation process. This act was transplanted by the Reformatory Schools Act, 1897, the Indian Jail Committee and later the Children Act of 1960. The Juvenile Justice Bill was first introduced in the Lok Sabha on 22 August 1986. This Act was further amended in 2006 and 2011 and is now known as the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) Act, 2000.
( The author is a student of Law School, Jammu University).
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