STATUTE REVIEW ON THE JUVENILE JUSTICE (CARE AND

PROTECTION) ACT, 2015

1.1 LEGAL METHODS

SUBMITTED BY: -

Himanshu Indise
UG 2017-43
2017-18, Semester 1

Maharashtra National Law University, Nagpur

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CONTENTS: -

Introduction................................................................................................................................3

Analysis of the statute................................................................................................................5

Conclusion..................................................................................................................................9

References……………………………………………………………………………………10

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INTRODUCTION

Age determination is of paramount importance to find out whether the accused falls under the
purview of the Juvenile Justice Act. Juvenile is a person whose age is below 18. Juvenile
Justice is a legal framework which defines justice for juveniles in India; it supports and gives
special approaches towards prevention and treatment of Juvenile delinquency. Juvenile
delinquency is a crime committed by youths or illegal behaviour by minors. In other words,
individuals younger than the statutory age of majority.

The first act in India concerning the children was brought to existence during the British rule
in 1850 known as the Apprentice Act. Later the Reformatory Schools Act, 1897 came into
existence. After that, in 1960 the Children Act, which was implemented by various states,
was centralized. To remove various deficiencies in the Act, a Children (Amendment) Act,
1978 was passed. The Juvenile Justice Act 1986 was passed by India in 22nd August, 1986.
Later, this act was repealed after India signed and ratified the Child Rights Convention 1989
in year 1992 and a new act was passed. This act came to be known as the Juvenile Justice
Act, 2000. This Act was amended in 2006 & 2010. Now it is called the Juvenile Justice
(Child Care & Protection Act) 2000.

The Juvenile Justice Act places juveniles in two categories:

1. Juveniles in "conflict with the law" handled by the state government.

According to the Child and Care Protection Act, the maximum tenure of punishment given to
the Juveniles is maximum 3 years and this type of punishment is generally given for serious
crimes like rape, murder etc. The other types of punishments are: 1. Rehabilitation centres 2.
Juvenile Schools 3. Fines 4. They will be made to work in various programmes by the
government etc. In the present day scenario, there is no need for juveniles to be given such
minor punishments.

Nowadays, we all know that heinous crimes are being committed by juveniles and now we
are in a situation debating about the juvenile' sage and punishment which is not given to them

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according to the crimes committed by them. Age determination is the most important factor
to find out whether the accused falls under the purview of the Juvenile Justice Act. Accurate
recording of the age is also important to form child welfare committees and institutes.

In the case of Ram Singh and others v. State of Delhi also known as Nirbhaya or the Delhi
Gang Rape case, 2012 created huge havoc regarding punishments given to the juvenile
convict should be same as given to other convicts. Yes, the juveniles should also be treated
in the same way because they have committed the same crime and also if they are below
statutory age of majority they need to be punished for the crime they have committed,
because if they get away with it will become a habit which will carry on till the later part of
their life, definitely they should get same treatment. The sooner a child is held accountable
for their actions; the sooner they will come to know there are consequences for their
consequences for their actions. Giving punishment is a positive thing so they should receive
this understanding and rectify them in their upbringing itself. They should be punished the
moment they commit crime that is the best gift they can receive. The sooner the better while
their minds are in developing stage.

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ANALYSIS OF THE JUVENILE JUSTICE (CARE AND PROTECTION) ACT, 2015

This project basically talks about the new juvenile act of 2015 and the questions and criticism
which have emerged with the introduction of this Act. The biggest question which has
emerged is that the reduction of juvenile age by judiciary is justified or not. Different people
have different views regarding it. This article basically deals with the various provisions of
this new juvenile act 0f 2015, how the act was passed and the reasons behind passing of this
act, the criticism that this act faced and my point of view about this act.

So let’s just begin with some basic information regarding the juvenile act, 2015.The juvenile
Act, 2015 or we can say that the Juvenile Justice (care and protection of children) act, 2015
was passed by the parliament of India. This act was passed by lok sabha on 7th May 2015
and passed by rajya sabha on 22th December 2015 and finally came into force from 15th
January 2016.The aim to amend the juvenile justice act, 2000 into juvenile justice act,2015 is
to replace the existing Indian juvenile delinquency law, juvenile justice (care and protection
of children) act,2000, so that juveniles in conflict with law in the age group of 16-18,involved
in Heinous offences , can be tried as adults.

The reason because of which the judiciary finds a need to amend the law was the decision of
2012, Delhi Gang Rape case, probably known as Nirbhaya Case. After 2012 Delhi gang
rape case, the accused in the case was a few months away from being 18 hence tried in the
juvenile court. On July 2013, Subramanian swami, a BJP politician filed a Public interest
litigation in the supreme court of India seeking that the boy be tried as an adult in a court.
Thereafter court asked the juvenile court to delay its verdict. After the supreme court allowed
the juvenile court to give its verdict, the boy was sentenced to 3 years in a reform home on
31august 2013.The victim’s mother criticized the verdict of the court and said by not
punishing the juvenile the court was encouraging other teenagers to commit similar crimes.
Because of this dissatisfaction towards the court verdict, minister of women and child
development, Maneka Gandhi said that they were preparing a new law which will allow 16-
year-olds to be tried as adult. She said that 50% of the juvenile crimes were committed by
teens who know that they will get away with it. She added that changing the law, which will
allow them to be tried for murder and rape as adults will scare them.

The bill was introduced in the parliament by Maneka Gandhi on 12th august 2014. The bill

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will allow a juvenile justice board, which would include psychologists and sociologists to
decide whether a juvenile criminal in the age group of 16-18 should be tried as an adult or
not. The bill adopts several new features which were missing in the earlier act like it adopts
the concept of Hague convention and cooperation in respect of Inter-country adoption ,1993.
The bill also seeks to make adoption process of orphaned, abandoned and surrendered
children more streamlined. One of the most criticized step in the new juvenile justice bill
2015 is introduction of “Judicial Waiver System” which will allow treatment of juveniles in
certain conditions, in the adult criminal justice system and to punish them as adults. For the
first time in India that such provisions have been applied.

This bill faced a lot of criticism when introduced. This bill was referred to the standing
committee of the parliament which also rejects such provisions but as we know the opinions
and decisions of the standing committee is not binding. The bill was also criticized for
prescribing opaque age discrimination system and is poorly draft. Shashi tharoor, an INC
member of parliament (MP) argued that the law was in contradiction with the international
standards and that most children who break the law come from poor and illiterate families.
He said that they should be educated instead of being punished. The bill was also criticized
by the child rights activists and women rights activists by calling it a regressive step. Retired
judge of Delhi high court, justice R.S. sodhi on 8 august 2015 told Hindustan times, “we are
a civilized nation and if we become barbaric by twisting our own laws, then the enemy
will succeed in destroying our social structure. We should not allow that but we must
condemn this move of sending children to fight their war.”

As seen above we talked about the criticism which this bill faced but the ground reality for
introduction of this bill is totally opposite. This bill should be considered as a demand of
time. As we know the social and economic conditions of a country changes with the time and
with the changing social conditions the law of the country needs to be amended which is even
provided by our constitution. The juvenile act was introduced in the year 2000 .The social
conditions at that time was different and the law was made according to that conditions but
after 16 years a lot many changes and technologies have been introduced in the society and
that has resulted in a big change in the mind-set of the teenagers who are becoming mature in
a early age now and they can clearly judge what is right and wrong and if still they are
committing crimes like rape it cannot be justified and is surely been a punishable offence.

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Secondly as it is said by the victim’s in the Delhi gang rape case of 2012 that this concept of
not punishing children because they are below 18 is leading as an encouragement to the
teenagers to commit similar crimes.

Thirdly if we talk about this new act , this act totally deals with punishing children involved
in crimes which are sort of well planned crimes , which creates a sense that the person
committing the crime clearly know about what he is doing and still committing it, the crimes
which are heinous in nature like rape and murder, dacoit or kidnapping.

This new act should be considered as the biggest legal reform by the Indian judiciary and
should be welcomed and implemented fairly and considered as a move towards stopping
crimes by the teenagers of country by creating a sense of fear of punishment in the minds of
teenagers by introduction of such type of laws.

Highlights of the Act:

 The Act replaces the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000. It
addresses children in conflict with law and children in need of care and protection.

 The Act permits juveniles between the ages of 16-18 years to be tried as adults for
heinous offences. Also, any 16-18-year-old, who commits a lesser, i.e., serious
offence, may be tried as an adult only if he is apprehended after the age of 21 years.

 Juvenile Justice Boards (JJB) and Child Welfare Committees (CWC) will be
constituted in each district. The JJB will conduct a preliminary inquiry to determine
whether a juvenile offender is to be sent for rehabilitation or be tried as an adult. The
CWC will determine institutional care for children in need of care and protection.

 Eligibility of adoptive parents and the procedure for adoption have been included in
the Bill.

 Penalties for cruelty against a child, offering a narcotic substance to a child, and
abduction or selling a child have been prescribed.

Key Issues and Analysis:

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 There are differing views on whether juveniles should be tried as adults. Some argue
that the current law does not act as a deterrent for juveniles committing heinous
crimes. Another view is that a reformative approach will reduce likelihood of
repeating offences.

 The provision of trying a juvenile committing a serious or heinous offence as an adult

 The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child requires all signatory countries to treat
every child under the age of 18 years as equal. The provision of trying a juvenile as
an adult contravenes the Convention.

 Some penalties provided in the Bill are not in proportion to the gravity of the
offence. For example, the penalty for selling a child is lower than that for offering
intoxicating or psychotropic substances to a child.

 The Standing Committee examining the Bill observed that the Bill was based on
misleading data regarding juvenile crimes and violated certain provisions of the
Constitution.

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CONCLUSION

The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2015 provides for strengthened
provisions for both children in need of care and protection and children in conflict with law.
Some of the key provisions include in nomenclature from “juvenile” to ‘child’ or ‘child in
conflict with law’, across the Act to remove the negative connotation associated with the
word “Juvenile”.

JJ Act, 2015, has brought the drastic change in the Juvenile Justice ACT, 2000, in the area of
treatments of juvenile, the functioning of Juvenile Justice Board, and Child Welfare
Committee, the forum of appeal against the order of Juvenile Justice Board and Child
Welfare Committee, as well as in the area of inter-country adoption and aftercare of children.

The Act is beneficial piece of legislation and therefore, must be interpreted and understood to
advice the cause of legislation and to confer the benefits of the provisions thereof to the
categories of persons from whom the legislation has been made.

That a nation’s future lies with its children has become a cliché. It is more so in the case of
India, with around 42% population below the age of 18 years.

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REFERENCES:

 http://www.lawyersclubindia.com/articles/Juvenile-justice-system-in-India-7936.asp

 http://www.legalservicesindia.com/article/article/juvenile-justice-act-2015-2147-
1.html

 http://www.manupatrafast.com/articles/PopOpenArticle.aspx?ID=7a31e0b7-ba53-
4938-a7df-0f7f9eaf863b&txtsearch=Subject:%20Jurisprudence

 http://www.prsindia.org/uploads/media/Juvenile%20Justice/Legislative%20Brief%20
Juvenile%20Justice%20Bill.pdf

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