The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 has mandated the children’s courts set up under Commissions for Protection of Child Rights Act, 2005, to inquire into heinous offences committed by children aged between 16 and 18.
Hitherto, such offences were inquired by the Juvenile Justice Boards (JJB) in the absence of clear guidelines and proper classification of offences. The 1st Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge Courts and 1st Additional District Judge Courts were designated as children’s courts.
Offences committed by juveniles were earlier bracketed as serious and non-serious but did not find a clear mention in the old Act (of 2000).
The offences have been categorised as petty, serious and heinous under the new piece of legislation, said Deputy Director of Prosecutions B. Ramakoteswara Rao.
Speaking to The Hindu , Mr. Rao observed that while the first two types of offences (petty and serious) have to be inquired by the JJB and punishment given by them, in the third (heinous) category, the JJB can only conduct a preliminary inquiry of the mental and physical abilities of the accused and their knowledge of consequences (of offence) and then refer the cases to children’s courts, which will pronounce the judgment.
Children who have not completed 18 years and been alleged or found to have committed an offence are defined as ‘children in conflict with law’. While facilitating inquiries by children’s courts, the Act did not lower the age of a juvenile from 18 as India is bound by Convention on the Rights of the Child (CORC) which defined a child as a person aged below 18.
It (reducing age) was a strong demand that emerged in the wake of the Delhi gang-rape case of 2012 but being a signatory to CORC framed by the UNICEF, India could not act in deference to the wishes of public who wanted death penalty to be awarded to those committing such heinous offences as rape and murder of hapless women and girls.
