The Child Sessions Court, which earlier this month upheld the Juvenile Justice Board’s (JJB) decision to try the juvenile accused in the Bhondsi school murder case as an adult, has in its order maintained that the board did not conduct the preliminary probe in haste.
It also said that the final investigation report was not required for the same.
Rejecting the arguments of the defence that the board had conducted the preliminary investigation in haste and could not have passed the order before the CBI filed its final investigation report, Additional Sessions Judge Jasbir Singh Kundu said that the “final report of the investigation was not at all required to be waited and looked into as a condition precedent for passing an order of preliminary investigation [sic.]”.
The order further read: “...preliminary assessment cannot be said to be done in a haste when appellant was before the board for as many as six weeks”.
“The statement of the Juvenile in Conflict with Law [JCL] before the board recorded for the purpose of the preliminary assessment, the experts report, the sequence of the occurrence running narrated by the investigating agency, all are well reflecting the mental and physical capacity of the JCL and the circumstances in which he allegedly committed the murder of ‘Prince’ and his ability to understand the consequences of the said offence and these all are straightaway running against the appellant,” the order read.
The court also did not find any merit in the defence’s argument that the psychological and physiological reports of the accused were not provided to them in “violation of fair trial”. The court said that as per clause (I) of Section 99 of the Juvenile Justice Act, all reports related to child and considered by the committee or the board are confidential.
“This court finds no discrimination with the child/JCL by the provisions of Section 99. Once Section 99 declares all reports to be treated as confidential, they are confidential for both parties,” said the court.
