Post the Delhi Gang-rape incident of December 2012 amidst other things the issue of juvenile justice system in country gathered a lot of attention. The Justice Verma Committee had said “the Juvenile Justice Act has failed miserably to protect the children in the country”.
Stretching a bit of what the Verma Committee concluded, in context of entire country the State will fall in the contours of the negative but realistic conclusion of the committee. The juvenile justice system in the State is in jeopardy.
The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000 makes it mandatory for every district to have at least one Juvenile Justice Board.
The JJBs are mandated to adjudicate and dispose cases of juveniles in conflict with law.
On the constitution of the JJBs it states, “There shall be one or more Juvenile Justice Boards in every district. The Board shall consist of a Metropolitan Magistrate or a Judicial Magistrate of the first class, as the case may be, and two Social Workers of whom at least one shall be a woman, forming a bench.”
The paces at which cases against the children in conflict with law are disposed depend upon the strength and efficiency of the JJBs. And for the misfortune of ‘conflicting children’ the JJBs in the different districts of the states are in shoddy conditions. Very few JJBs are in full compliance with the Act.
The capital city Ranchi has only two members to man the JJB Ranchi. In Chaibasa the post of Principal Magistrate is vacant for last two years. Garhwa district JJB also has only two members. JJB Bokaro has three members but only two members take part in regular sittings and meetings.
This resulted in lot of pendency in these districts except Ranchi which has less than five pending cases. Among rest other districts Chatra JJB has around 100 pendency, Chaibasa has more than 300 cases are waiting to be heard. While Deoghar has around 90 pending cases in West Singhbhum around 20 cases are pending.
Sanjay Mishra of State Commission of Protection of Child Rights says, “The JJBs are in absolute dismal condition. They are short-staffed. Unsupported by collateral resources like the probation homes and apt police support their capacity to deliver quick justice gets further reduced. I have seen children dumped in the unworthy probation homes for petty crimes like stealing a kg or two of iron scraps. Cases are not being disposed off quickly and they are growing beyond 16-18 years. Their career prospects are blocked and the entire purpose of JJ Act gets defeated.”
As per the JJ Act, the board sittings has to be held in child friendly manner and strictly it should not be held in court premises. But in Garhwa the JJB meets in the District Court campus.
As per the member of JJB Garhwa children have to see witness boxes, judges are to sit on raised platform and the hearing is done in an environment of a common courts.
This is complete violation of the JJ Act.
The JJ Act says that the JJB will sit every working day and the two members (other than the metropolitan judges) will be paid an amount as decided by the State Government but not less than Rs500 per sitting. But the JJB members from across the State say that the government has never paid more than Rs 350.