Changes in juvenile law

The proposed amendments to the Juvenile Justice Act that would allow juveniles between 16 and 18 years to be considered adults in cases of heinous crime is a well-thought-out step (April 23). The step of >pre-assessment sieving by the Juvenile Justice Board to determine whether a juvenile is to be treated as a ‘child’ or an ‘adult’ is a pragmatic safeguard. This amendment is also in conformity with The Child Labour Act where children above 16 years are beyond its pale.

Ayyasseri Raveendranath,

Aranmula, Kerala

Once juveniles are treated like adults before the law, there will always be the lurking fear that such offenders too will be tortured mercilessly in the name of ‘interrogation’ by the police. Therefore, abundant caution must be taken to ensure that juveniles are not subject to extreme methods in order to ‘extract a confession’. There must be a panel of psychologists, social workers, sociologists and medical professionals to ensure that the police find an alternative method to the present archaic way of extracting confessions. Also, once convicted, juvenile offenders should not be lodged in the same cell as adult criminals. The amendment needs careful, proper and exhaustive scrutiny.

M.V. Nahusharaj,

Bengaluru