This article is written by Nupoor Agarwal, 2nd year BBA LLB (Hons.) student of School of Law, NMIMS, Navi Mumbai during her internship with LeDroit India.
Introduction
‘Nil Novi Spectrum,’ a Latin phrase that best describes India’s juvenile justice system, means “nothing new on this planet.” Since past , there has been a notion that juveniles should be treated leniently since there’s a faculty of thinking that says– children have a bent to reply during a significant and protracted frustration followed by violent methods.
In recent years, it’s also been reported that the amount of crimes committed by children aged 15-16 has grown dramatically. Early-life experiences, dominating masculinity, upbringing, economic chaos, lack of education, then on are the overall inclination or psychology underlying the commission of crime or the causes of crime. Children between the ages of 6 and 10 are increasingly utilised as tools for completing unlawful or criminal actions, which may be a matter of shame. Because children’s brains have a naive and manipulative nature, they’ll be enticed for a touch cost.
Prior to the Juvenile Justice Act of 2015, 2000, and 1986, there was the youngsters Act of 1960, which aimed to place into effect international responses to the difficulty of juvenile justice by providing a consistent policy that protected a juvenile’s interests and checked out the care, treatment, rehabilitation, and development of a toddler generally .
However, in light of recent events within the world community and therefore the following growth of juvenile involvement in crime, Indian legislators are obligated to propose new, progressive, and stronger rules for the country’s juvenile system. As a result, the Juvenile Justice Act of 1986 was passed, followed by the Juvenile Justice Act of 2000, and last the Juvenile Justice Act of 2015.
Justice V.K. Krishna Iyer, a former judge of India, once declared that we’d like a criminal code since a child is that the father of a person , and if we ignore children’s underdevelopment, we might be guilty of the many flaws and errors linked to abandoning our youngsters .
The incidence of crime committed by youngsters under the age of 16 has risen in recent decades. The explanation for the rising rate could be the child’s rearing environment, economic difficulties, a scarcity of education, or parental care. These are a number of the foremost important reasons.
The worst aspect is that these days , children are exploited as tools for committing crimes since their minds are still relatively pure at that age and may easily be misled.
The shocking occurrence in Nirbhaya on December 16, 2012 shook the state , igniting a firestorm of dialogue among the legal profession and leftists. the main basis for the dispute was the involvement of the accused, who was only six months faraway from being 18 years old. The accused’s involvement in such a horrible act of rape compelled the Indian Parliament to pass a replacement law, which is understood because the “Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) Act, 2015.“
With the passage of the Act, existing juvenile laws were repealed, and a number of other significant revisions were made. one among the notable modifications is that juveniles between the ages of 16 and 18 should be prosecuted as adults.
Definition of kid and Juvenile under various laws
A “child” is defined as an individual who has not reached the age of 18 and isn’t mature enough to understand what’s right and wrong. within the current period, most nations’ penal codes have embraced the notion of ‘doli incapex,’ which entails understanding that the conduct you’re undertaking is against the law . Only children aged seven to 12 are often convicted, consistent with the criminal rules, if the conduct they performed may be a severe crime and that they have knowledge and have achieved sufficient understanding to understand the implications of their deed.
A “child” is defined as an individual who has not reached the age of eighteen, consistent with sub-section 12 of Section 2 of The Juvenile (Care and Protection) Act, 2015. The phrase “child” is split into two groups under the Act: “kid at issue with the law” and “child in need of care and protection.”
A kid who has committed an offence and is under the age of 18 years at the time of the offence is mentioned as a “child at issue with the law.” The second sub-category is “child in need of care and protection,” which refers to a toddler who meets the standards began in Section 14 of the Act.
As per Children Act, 1960 Section 2(e), a “child” is defined as a boy or a woman under the age of eighteen.
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the kid, adopted in 1989, defines “child” as a person’s being under the age of eighteen years, unless the law declaration applicable to children, majority, is reached earlier.
Background of Juvenile Justice System in India
In the modern period, a movement for the particular treatment of juvenile offenders has sprung up over the world, especially in many industrialised nations such as the United Kingdom and the United States of America. This trend began in the mid-eighteenth century. Juvenile criminals were once treated the same as other criminal offenders. On November 20, 1989, the United Nations General Assembly enacted a Convention on the Rights of the Child for the same reason. This convention aims to safeguard young offenders’ best interests.According to the Convention, there must be no legal proceedings or court trials against juveniles in order to preserve their social reintegration. The Convention pushes the Indian Legislation to abolish and replace the Juvenile Justice Act of 1986. As a result, Indian legislators enacted a new law known as “The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000.”
The Juvenile Justice Act of 1986, which abolished the previous Children Act of 1960, was enacted to give effect to the standards set forth in the United Nations’ Standard Minimum Rules for the Administration of Juvenile Justice, which were ratified in November 1985. The above-mentioned Act included 63 sections and seven chapters, and it applied to all of India excluding Jammu and Kashmir. The Act’s main goal was to offer care and protection, as well as therapy, development, and rehabilitation, to neglected juvenile delinquents.
Juvenile Justice Act, 2000
The Act was passed in the year 2000 with the goal of providing safety to children. The above-mentioned was revised twice, the first in 2006 and the second in 2011. The change was proposed to address the implementation gap and loopholes.
Furthermore, the rising number of incidents of juvenile crimes in recent years, as well as the horrifying tragedy of the “Delhi Gang Rape Case,” has compelled lawmakers to pass legislation. The Act’s main flaw is that it contains ill-equipped legal provisions, and the juvenile system’s failure was also a key factor in avoiding juvenile crimes in India. The Juvenile Justice(Care and Protection) Act, 2015 quickly superseded it.
India’s current juvenile justice system
India, like other nations, has enacted legislation that addresses the rights and protection of juvenile offenders in order to combat the problem of juvenile delinquency. In India, the juvenile justice system is built on three fundamental assumptions:
1. Young offenders should not be tried in courts; instead, they should be corrected in every way possible.
2. They should not be punished by the courts, but should be given the opportunity to rehabilitate.
3. Trials for children who have broken the law should be based on non-punitive treatment in the community, utilising social control organisations such as Observation Homes and Special Homes.
Juvenile Justice Act, 2015
Because there was a need for a more strong and effective judicial system that focused on both deterrence and reformative measures, the Juvenile Justice Act of 2015 superseded the Juvenile Justice Act of 2000. The attitude to juveniles should be different than that to adults; there have been arguments in Parliament that juvenile should be allowed greater room for transformation, reform, or progress, and that this can only happen if there is a specific judicial system in place. As a result, the new Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, focuses on a juvenile-friendly approach to adjudication and resolution of cases.
Claim of Juvenility
In the case of KulaiIbrahim v. State of Coimbatore, the Court stated that under Section 9 of the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015, an accused has the right to raise the issue of juvenility at any time during the trial or even after the case has been decided.
In Deoki Nandan Dayma v. State of Uttar Pradesh, the court decided that an entry in the school record stating a student’s date of birth is acceptable evidence in ascertaining the age of a juvenile or demonstrating whether the accused is a juvenile or a child.
The Supreme Court emphasised in Satbir Singh& others v. State of Haryana that the date of birth reported in the school records should be taken into account by the Juvenile Justice Board while determining whether the accused is a juvenile or not.
In Krishna Bhagwan v. State of Bihar, the court held that the relevant date for determining the age of a juvenile for the purposes of a Juvenile Justice Board trial should be the day on which the offence was committed.
The Court reversed its prior judgement in Arnit Das v. State of Bihar, holding that the date to determine on a claim of juvenility shall be the day on which the accused is taken before the appropriate authorities.
India’s Constitution and Juvenile Justice
The Indian Constitution is regarded as the country’s foundational law. Citizens’ rights and responsibilities are outlined in the Constitution. It also includes provisions for the proper operation of government machinery. Part III of the Constitution establishes Fundamental Rights for people, while Part IV establishes Directive Principles of State Policies (DPSP), which serve as general principles in the formulation of government policies. Some essential rights and provisions, particularly for the welfare of children, are included in the Constitution. For instance-
- All children between the ages of 6 and 14 have the right to a free and obligatory basic education. (Article 21A)
- The right to be protected from dangerous work when under the age of fourteen. (Article 24) The right to be safeguarded from all forms of adult abuse. (Article 39 e)
- The right to be free from human trafficking and the system of forced bonded labour. (Article 39)
- The right to a healthy diet and a decent level of living. (Article 47)
- Article 15(3) of the Indian Constitution grants unique powers to the states to enact special legislation for the development and welfare of children and women.
Conclusion
The rising rates of juvenile crime in India are a serious worry that must be addressed. Although the government has enacted different laws and regulations to reduce juvenile crime, the current laws on juveniles do not have a deterrent impact on juveniles, and hence the outcomes are ineffective and the legislative objective is not being fulfilled.
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