Effectiveness of Juvenile Justice System:
- Delhi has 2 Juvenile justice board
- Receive more than 2000 juveniles
- Needs to dispose 600 cases
- 143% increase in pendency
Issues
- Office of Public prosecutor lack infrastructure – no computer, receives no fund for stationary, not a single staff has been provided
- Public prosecutor is central to effective criminal justice system
- 2 JJ board also face shortage of probation officers
The Union Cabinet has recently agreed to the provisions of Juvenile Justice (Care & Protection) Bill, 2014 in which it proposes to try Juveniles between 16 & 18 years of age would be tried as adults for certain class of heinous crimes like rape, murder, dacoity. India signed UN Convention on Right of Child25 years back for protecting the right of child. Also, as per the Constitution of India, an individual is not considered mentally eligible to cast his vote, economically and physically eligible to consummate a sexual relationship and marry. It is because law consider him not fully grown mentally, economically and physically then how could law punish him considering him fully grown. The provisions of the bill are criticised by many experts and child rights activists.
Arguments against the above provision:
- The said provision of the Act are in violation of the constitution and UN convention on Child Rights which treats anyone below 18 years of age as a Child.
- The evidence that such policies do not lead to any palpable drop in crime rates by the Juveniles in the countries which try Juveniles as adults for certain crimes, goes against the principle of evidence based policy making.
- Other provisions of the Act which says that a Juvenile Justice Board, which will include psychologists, will decide after examination of the Juvenile if he could be tries as an adult seems flawed. The subjectivity in such examination violates the principle of rule of law under the constitution. There is also the issue of unavailability of large number of such experts.
- Other arguments like reformative justice, social upbringing of such juveniles, etc. go against such an Act.
- It also violates Art 14, Right to equality of the constitution by creating a separate class of citizens.
- It ignores evidences from across the globe that suggests no link between punitive laws and improved public safety or deterrence. Instead in some countries like USA the transfer system has resulted into higher subsequent crimes by juveniles (largely because of negative influences in jails).
Arguments in favour of the Act:
- Children during current times mature early with the kind of exposure they have.
- The crimes committed by the Juveniles are on the rise
- Many developed countries already have provisions for trying Juveniles as adults for certain class of crimes.
Adolescent age is when child is emotionally & hormonally imbalanced so leaving him prone to such crimes. It has often been observed that those who go to prison become hardened criminals later. The root causes of such crimes like poverty, lack of education, broken families, poor rehabilitation and foster homes, unlimited access to pornography should be addressed to solve the issue.
“The Cabinet’s nod to amendments in the Juvenile Justice Bill would not only violate the basic principles of the Constitution, but also be in conflict with evidence-based social policy.” Critically comment. (200 Words)
Recently the government proposed to introduce legal provisions to ensure that children between the ages of 16 and 18 are tried as adults if they commit heinous offences such as murder and rape. Do you think is it a step in right direction? Critically analyse. (200 Words)
“The Cabinet’s nod to amendments in the Juvenile Justice Bill would not only violate the basic
principles of the Constitution, but also be in conflict with evidence-based social policy.” Critically comment. (200 Words)