The ministerial group, headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley which will deliberate on the amendments to the Juvenile Justice Act will meet on Monday before the Rajya Sabha meets on April 23.
Since the Juvenile Justice Amendment (Care and Protection of Children) Bill, headed by the Women and Child Development Ministry, deals with complex issues from treatment of juveniles in conflict with law to establishing foster care system and changes in the adoption rules in India, the Cabinet referred it for the ministerial group for detailed discussions.
The ministerial group will include Union Ministers Jaitley, Nitin Gadkari Venkaiah Naidu, Sadanand Gowda and Ravi Shankar Prasad besides WCD Minister Maneka Gandhi.
“We have been told that the meeting is scheduled for Monday in the coming week. After we receive the suggestions, we will incorporate the changes at the earliest before forwarding the draft to the Cabinet for consideration,” said an official from the WCD Ministry.
The JJ Amendment Bill has suggested that minors between the age of 16-18 years accused of heinous crimes like murder, rape and acid attacks can be tried as adults on the discretion of the JJ Board. The other big change is that unlike an adult, the juvenile may undergo a second trial at the age of 21 and if deemed reformed by the JJ board he may be set free.
Besides this significant change, the bill also seeks to introduce guidelines for foster care-where a family may provide shelter and comforts of a home to the orphan- where the centre pays a fixed remuneration to the family towards the basic needs of the child. The draft also seeks to introduce changes to the adoption process to make it simpler and faster.
“Since the law pertains to the social sector, there are two sides of every picture. Since the changes will have far reaching impact, it is important to discuss the proposed changes in detail,” said an official from the WCD Ministry.
WCD ministry officials has supplemented the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data to back the move to reduce the age for trying a juvenile for serious offences like rapes and murders particularly in the age group of 16-18 years, had gone up significantly in the recent times. From 531 murders in 2002, the figure had gone up to 1,007 in 2013 while for rape and assault crime recorded was up from 485 to 1,884 during the same period.