By Aditya Singh Raghav
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This bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha on 12th August 2014. This legislation was intended to replace the Act of 2000 and provide a legislative framework for the needs of children and provisions an effective system for administering justice, care, and protection of juveniles. The bill made a clear difference between petty, serious and heinous crimes.
The bill was proposed by the Ministry of
Women and Child Development after the Delhi gang rape case in 2012. Because of
this case, Ram Singh v. State of Delhi, the general public believed that
juveniles should be convicted as adults for committing heinous offences and be
given the same punishment as adults.
After passing the bill, the government
cited that the main reason behind the passing of the bill was the report of the
National Crime Bureau, which showed an increase in crime committed by juveniles
between the ages of 16 and 18. The NCRB data showed that the percentage of
juvenile crime increased from 1% in 2003 to 1.2% in 2013. During the same
period, 16 to 18 year olds accused of crimes as a percentage of all juveniles
accused of crimes increased from 54% to 66%.
However, the main reason behind
introducing (and later enacting) the Bill was the Delhi gang rape, or Nirbhaya,
case. In this case, one of the accused was a juvenile and was only a month away
from being 18 years old. He was tried in a juvenile court. Mr Subramaniam
Swamy, a BJP politician, filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the
Supreme Court to get permission for the juvenile to be tried as an adult. The
three judge bench of the Supreme Court denied this and stated that the
provisions of the law are in compliance with the Constitution and international
conventions. However, this decision was criticized by the public at large who
thought that such decisions will encourage juveniles to commit more crimes.
So, Ministry of Women and Child
Development, under Ms Maneka Gandhi, prepared the draft Bill allowing for
children of the ages 16 to 18 to be tried as adults for committing heinous
crimes like murder, rape, burglary, robbery etc. It was believed that 50% of
juvenile crimes were committed by those who thought that they would get away
with it, and therefore, allowing them to be tried as adults would scare juveniles
into compliance and away from crime.
The draft also sought to correct certain
issues found with the Juvenile Act of 2000 its amendments like procedural
delays, increase in the abuse of children at the centers, inadequate facilities
in children’s homes, etc.
Some changes were made and the Juvenile Justice Bill was passed in the Lok Sabha on 7th May 2015, which is dealt with in the next article in the series.
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Aditya is a 2nd year law student at National Law University Delhi. An adventurous person, he actively participates in sports activities and loves to go trekking. He is a football fan and you can easily find him discussing football matches with his friends. His interests include Commercial Law, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law and Competition Law.
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