Juvenile Justice Board

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Juvenile Justice Boards are Indian quasi-judicial bodies that decide whether juveniles accused of a crime should be tried as an adult. [1] [2]

Contents

History

Juvenile Justice Boards were formed by State Governments [3] under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015. [4] [5]

Members of the board and eligibility

Each Juvenile Justice Board consists of one first-class judicial magistrate and two social workers at least one of whom is a woman. [6] They are paid an honorarium. Terms last two years for those of ages 35–65. [7] To qualify as a board member, the applicant should have been engaged for seven years in the areas of health, education or other child welfare activities or should be a qualified professional with a degree from an accredited Institute and practicing in Law, Sociology, Psychology, or Psychiatry relating to children. [8]

Functions

Juvenile Justice Boards have the following functions: [9]

Pre-requisites for consideration as a minor

The Juvenile Justice Board considers the following circumstances before declaring any juvenile as minor: [10] [11]

Juveniles classified as adults may face serious punishments such as life imprisonment that are applicable for adult criminals.

Appeals

Appeals against the Board's order can be made to the Children's Court. Subsequently, orders of the Children's court can be appealed in the High Court. [12]

Criticism

The Juvenile Justice Board has faced criticism in the trial of the 2012 Delhi gang rape and murder. The juvenile defendant Mohammed Afroz was not allowed to be trial as adult, with the JJB rejecting the plea of Delhi Police to conduct a bone ossification test. [13] Despite being labeled as the most brutal in the crime, he was subsequently sentenced to 3 years in a Juvenile Reform Facility, which earned criticism from activists and lawyers. [14] [15] He was released in December 2015 after his term finished. [16]

Following the arrest of the minor accused Vedant Agarwal in the 2024 Pune Porsche hit-and-run, which led to the death of 2 software engineers in Pune, he was granted bail by the JJB and asked to write a 300 word essay. The decision earned a backlash and public outcry from political leaders and the general public. [17] Following the protests against the order, the bail was canceled and Agarwal was remanded back into custody of an observation home. Pune Police officials later moved to the Bombay High Court to try Agarwal as an adult. [18]

See also

Related Research Articles

In law, a minor is someone under a certain age, usually the age of majority, which demarcates an underage individual from legal adulthood. The age of majority depends upon jurisdiction and application, but it is commonly 18. Minor may also be used in contexts that are unconnected to the overall age of majority. For example, the smoking and drinking age in the United States is 21, and younger people below this age are sometimes called minors in the context of tobacco and alcohol law, even if they are at least 18. The terms underage or minor often refer to those under the age of majority, but may also refer to a person under other legal age limits, such as the age of consent, marriageable age, driving age, voting age, working age, etc. Such age limits are often different from the age of majority.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Juvenile delinquency</span> Illegal behavior by minors

Juvenile delinquency, also known as juvenile offending, is the act of participating in unlawful behavior as a minor or individual younger than the statutory age of majority. These acts would otherwise be considered crimes if the individuals committing them were older. The term delinquent usually refers to juvenile delinquency, and is also generalised to refer to a young person who behaves an unacceptable way.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Juvenile court</span> Court to try minors for legal offenses

Juvenile court, also known as young offender's court or children's court, is a tribunal having special authority to pass judgements for crimes committed by children who have not attained the age of majority. In most modern legal systems, children who commit a crime are treated differently from legal adults who have committed the same offense.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000</span> Act of the Parliament of India

The Juvenile Justice Act, 2000 is the primary legal framework for juvenile justice in India. The act provides for a special approach towards the prevention and treatment of juvenile delinquency and provides a framework for the protection, treatment and rehabilitation of children in the purview of the juvenile justice system. This law, brought in compliance of the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), repealed the earlier Juvenile Justice Act of 1986 after India signed and ratified the UNCRC in 1992. In the wake of Delhi gang rape, the law suffered a nationwide criticism owing to its helplessness against crimes where juveniles get involved in heinous crimes like rape and murder. In 2015, responding to the public sentiment, both the houses of parliament in India further amended the bill that proposed adult-like treatment for juveniles aged 16–18 above accused of heinous crimes. The lower house, i.e. Lok Sabha passed the bill on 7 May 2015 and the upper house, i.e. Rajya Sabha on 22 December 2015. The bill was approved by President Pranab Mukherjee's assent on 31 December 2015.

In common law jurisdictions, statutory rape is nonforcible sexual activity in which one of the individuals is below the age of consent. Although it usually refers to adults engaging in sexual contact with minors under the age of consent, it is a generic term, and very few jurisdictions use the actual term statutory rape in the language of statutes. In statutory rape, overt force or threat is usually not present. Statutory rape laws presume coercion because a minor or mentally disabled adult is legally incapable of giving consent to the act.

Rape is the fourth most common crime against women in India. According to the 2021 annual report of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), 31,677 rape cases were registered across the country, or an average of 86 cases daily, a rise from 2020 with 28,046 cases, while in 2019, 32,033 cases were registered. Of the total 31,677 rape cases, 28,147 of the rapes were committed by persons known to the victim. The share of victims who were minors or below 18 – the legal age of consent – stood at 10%.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2012 Delhi gang rape and murder</span> Gang rape, torture, murder and assault incident in India

The 2012 Delhi gang rape and murder, commonly known as the Nirbhaya case, involved a rape and fatal assault that occurred on 16 December 2012 in Munirka, a neighbourhood in South Delhi. The incident took place when Jyoti Singh, a 22-year-old physiotherapy intern, was beaten, gang-raped, and tortured in a private bus in which she was travelling with her male friend, Avnindra Pratap Pandey. There were six others in the bus, including the driver, all of whom raped the woman and beat her friend. She was rushed to Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi for treatment and transferred to Singapore eleven days after the assault, where she succumbed to her injuries two days later. The incident generated widespread national and international coverage and was widely condemned, both in India and abroad. Subsequently, public protests against the state and central governments for failing to provide adequate security for women took place in New Delhi, where thousands of protesters clashed with security forces. Similar protests took place in major cities throughout the country. Since Indian law does not allow the press to publish a rape victim's name, the victim was widely known as Nirbhaya, meaning "fearless", and her struggle and death became a symbol of women's resistance to rape around the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013</span> Indian legislation

The Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013 is an Indian legislation passed by the Lok Sabha on 19 March 2013, and by the Rajya Sabha on 21 March 2013, which provides for amendment of Indian Penal Code, Indian Evidence Act, and Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 on laws related to sexual offences. The Bill received Presidential assent on 2 April 2013 and was deemed to be effective from 3 February 2013. It was originally an Ordinance promulgated by the President of India, Pranab Mukherjee, on 3 February 2013, in light of the protests in the 2012 Delhi gang rape case.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shakti Mills gang rape</span> August 2013 gang rape in Mumbai, India

The 2013 Mumbai gang rape, also known as the Shakti Mills gang rape, refers to the incident in which a 22-year-old photojournalist, who was interning with an English-language magazine in Mumbai, was gang-raped by five people including a juvenile. The incident occurred on 22 August 2013, when she had gone to the deserted Shakti Mills compound, near Mahalaxmi in South Mumbai, with a male colleague on an assignment. The accused had tied up the victim's colleague with belts and raped her. The accused took photos of the victim during the sexual assault, and threatened to release them to social networks if she reported the rape. Later, an eighteen-year-old call centre employee reported that she too had been gang-raped, on 31 July 2013 inside the mills complex.

India's Daughter is a documentary film directed by Leslee Udwin and is part of the BBC's ongoing Storyville series. The film is based on the 2012 Delhi gang rape and murder of 22-year-old "Nirbhaya", who was a physiotherapy student. The documentary explores the events of the night of 16 December 2012, the protests which were sparked both nationally and internationally as a result of the assault, and the lives of the men before they committed the attack. The film is told through the use of reconstructed footage and interviews with those involved in the case, including the defence lawyers, psychiatrists, and one of the rapists.

Daughters of Mother India is a 2014 documentary film directed and produced by Vibha Bakshi on the aftermath of the brutal gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old medical student Nirbhaya in Delhi on December 16, 2012. For the first time in the history of the Delhi Police, Vibha was able to gain access to the Delhi Police control and command room right after Nirbhaya's death.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015</span> Act of the Parliament of India

Juvenile Justice Act, 2015 has been passed by Parliament of India amidst intense controversy, debate, and protest on many of its provisions by Child Rights fraternity. It replaced the Indian juvenile delinquency law, Juvenile Justice Act, 2000, and allows for juveniles in conflict with Law in the age group of 16–18, involved in Heinous Offences, to be tried as adults. The Act also sought to create a universally accessible adoption law for India, overtaking the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act (1956) and the Guardians and Wards Act (1890), though not replacing them. The Act came into force from 15 January 2016.

Pradyuman Thakur was a seven-year-old student at Ryan International School, in Gurugram, in the state of Haryana, India. He was found with injuries to his neck outside a washroom at the school on 8 September 2017, and he later succumbed to his wounds. A bus conductor who provided assistance with carrying the injured Pradyuman was initially charged with the murder, and allegedly confessed to police, but was later found to be innocent. Four police officers were later charged with framing him for the murder. Following a transfer of the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation, an unnamed sixteen year old student from the same school has since been charged with his murder. The case is still going on, and the trial proceedings have not begun as of December 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kathua rape case</span> 2018 crime in Jammu and Kashmir, India

The Kathua rape case involved the abduction, gang rape, and murder of an 8-year-old Muslim girl, Asifa Bano, by seven Hindu males in January 2018 in the Rasana village near Kathua in Jammu and Kashmir, India. A chargesheet for the case was filed, the accused were arrested and the trial began in Kathua on 16 April 2018. The victim belonged to the nomadic Bakarwal community, and the crime was a bid to terrorise the group off Jammu. She disappeared for a week before her body was discovered by the villagers a kilometer away from the village. The incident made national news when charges were filed against eight men in April 2018. The arrests of the accused led to protests by the Panthers Party and other local groups, who sought justice for the victim. The gang rape and murder, as well as the support the accused received especially from local officials of the Bharatiya Janata party, sparked widespread outrage in India and world-wide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Swati Maliwal</span> Indian social activist and politician (born 1984)

Swati Maliwal is a social activist and politician. She currently serves as a Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha representing Delhi. She participated in the 2011 Indian anti-corruption movement led by social activist Anna Hazare and later, served as the chairperson of the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) from 2015 to 2024.

In November 2019, the gang rape and murder of a 26-year-old veterinary doctor in Shamshabad, near Hyderabad, sparked outrage across India. Her body was found in Shadnagar on 28 November 2019, the day after she was murdered. Four suspects were arrested and, according to the Cyberabad Metropolitan Police, confessed to having raped and killed the doctor.

Mridula Bhatkar is a former judge of the Bombay High Court, in Maharashtra, India, serving on the court between 2009 and 2019. She adjudicated in several notable cases during her tenure as a judge, including the Jalgaon rape case, the 2006 Mumbai train bombings, and the conviction of Gujarat police officers and doctors in the 2002 gangrape of Bilkis Bano.

Sunil Tingre is a leader of the Nationalist Congress Party and a Member of Maharashtra Legislative Assembly (MLA), elected from Vadgaon Sheri Assembly constituency in Pune city.

In May 2022, the gang rape of a 17-year-old girl in Road no. 44, Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad, sparked outrage across Telangana and India. The minor girl returning home after attending a get-together at Amnesia pub was gang-raped by six persons, including five minors in Jubilee Hills area of the State capital. All the accused were arrested by police from their separate hideouts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2024 Pune car crash</span>

On 19 May 2024, Vedant Agarwal, aged 17 years, killed two motorbike riders in an automobile collision in the Kalyani Nagar neighborhood of Pune, Maharashtra, India. The deceased, Anish Awadhiya and Ashwini Koshta, were both IT professionals and residents of Madhya Pradesh. Media reports emphasised that Agarwal was driving an unregistered Porsche Taycan, considered a luxury vehicle, and that he had purchased and consumed alcohol before the incident.

References

  1. ↑ Ganotra, Komal (17 February 2016). "With no systems in place, we are taking away our children's right to justice". Scroll.in. Retrieved 18 October 2022.
  2. ↑ "Juvenile Justice Boards (JJBs) - JournalsOfIndia". journalsofindia.com. 18 July 2022. Retrieved 19 October 2022.
  3. ↑ "SC directs states to clear pendency in Juvenile Justice Boards: Another SLIC achievement towards ensuring child rights — SLIC". slic.org.in. 24 July 2015. Retrieved 18 October 2022.
  4. ↑ More, Hemant (22 April 2020). "Juvenile Justice Board: Its constitution, powers, jurisdiction, and functions". The Fact Factor. Retrieved 18 October 2022.
  5. ↑ "44 per cent apprehended juveniles out of 1,026 were acquitted in the last seven years: RTI reply". The Indian Express. 4 October 2022. Retrieved 18 October 2022.
  6. ↑ "Juvenile Justice System of India- Jurisdiction of Courts and beyond". Law Insider India. 13 February 2022. Retrieved 18 October 2022.
  7. ↑ "Applications invited for posts of Juvenile Justice Board members". The Hindu. 5 November 2021. Retrieved 18 October 2022.
  8. ↑ "Applications invited for Juvenile Justice Board member posts". The Hindu. 16 March 2015. Retrieved 18 October 2022.
  9. ↑ "Juvenile Justice Board - Indian Law Portal". indianlawportal. 22 July 2020. Retrieved 19 October 2022.
  10. ↑ "Explained: How should JJBs decide on whether to try a child of 16 years as an 'adult'?". The Indian Express. 16 July 2022. Retrieved 19 October 2022.
  11. ↑ "Why preliminary assessment is against the idea of juvenile justice". Times of India Blog. 7 October 2022. Retrieved 19 October 2022.
  12. ↑ "JJ Act Section 101".
  13. ↑ "Subramanian Swamy's plea for trying juvenile as adult accused dismissed". Hindustan Times. 24 January 2013. Archived from the original on 26 January 2013.
  14. ↑ "Most brutal rapist declared minor, victim's kin outraged". Hindustan Times. 28 January 2013. Archived from the original on 28 January 2013.
  15. ↑ "Nirbhaya gang-rape case: Juvenile found guilty of rape and murder". The Times of India. 31 August 2013. Archived from the original on 31 August 2013. Retrieved 31 August 2013.
  16. ↑ S. W. Staff (5 May 2017). "Nirbhaya's 'Juvenile' Rapist Who Walked Free Last Year Is Reportedly Working As A Cook". ScoopWhoop. Archived from the original on 19 May 2020. Retrieved 11 June 2019.
  17. ↑ Gautam, Aditi (22 May 2024). "Explained: Charges Against Pune Builder, Son Who Ran Over 2 With Porsche". NDTV.com. Retrieved 26 May 2024.
  18. ↑ "Pune Porsche deaths: Police move higher court for trying accused minor as adult| Top updates". Hindustan Times. 2024-05-20. Retrieved 2024-05-26.
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