The Supreme Court on Monday told the Centre it is about time the Government devised an effective law to deal with juveniles involved in heinous offences. The court ruling has come ahead of a Cabinet meeting, scheduled for Tuesday, to consider the proposal for reducing the age of juveniles involved in heinous crimes like rape, murder and acid attacks from 18 years to 16 years and related amendments to the Juvenile Justice Bill, 2014.
Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi had proposed that juveniles from 16-18 years of age, guilty of heinous crimes or found to be repeat offenders of crimes like kidnapping, trafficking, attempt to murder or outraging the modesty of women could be liable for a longer prison term than what has been mandated under the Juvenile Justice Act.
The Bill mandated that a Juvenile Justice Board would decide whether a person above 16 years involved in crimes such as rape was to be sent to an observation home or tried in a regular court. Their behaviour in jail, the sources said, would then be reviewed and, if it was found that they had reformed, could even be freed.
Giving time till May, 2015 to the authorities to suggest possible changes in the juvenile law with regard to offenders of heinous offences such as rape, dacoity, or murder, a Bench of Justices Dipak Misra and Prafulla C Pant said that juveniles who commit such crimes are aware of consequences of their act.
The apex court said, “A time has come to think of an effective law to deal with the situation, we request the Attorney General to bring it to the notice of the concerned authorities so that the relevant provisions under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2000 can be relooked, re-scrutinised and revisited, at least in respect of offences which are heinous in nature.”
The proposal to reduce the age of juveniles was shot down by the Parliamentary Standing Committee in September, 2014 for being “in conflict with law”. Even Supreme Court judgements on March 28, 2014 and July 17, 2013 refused to lower the age of juveniles from 18 to 16 for heinous crimes. Putting this aside, the Women and Child Development Ministry is still going ahead with its proposal.
The order by the court came during hearing of a murder case from Haryana where a juvenile was among a gang of five who killed a person. On November 24, 2014, the SC Bench headed by Justice Misra (who passed this order) had asked the Centre to consider linking gravity of crime with age of offender to deny heinous offenders the cover of protection under the JJ Act.
In reviving the discussion again, the SC invoked a sense of urgency as increasing number of cases were coming to light involving juveniles committing heinous crimes. In the case at hand, the juvenile was 17 years and nine months at the time he committed the offence on May 23, 2000. He thus qualified for protection under the JJ Act.
The Bench felt that a distinction has to be made for heinous offences from cases where a young boy innocuously commits an offence without being aware of its consequences. “In cases of rape, dacoity, murder which are heinous crimes, it is extremely difficult to conceive that the juvenile was not aware of the consequences...or for that matter was it a crime committed, if proven, with a mind that was not matured enough.”