Juvenile......

Juvenile means, "Juvenile status, or minor (law), prior to adulthood".

The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000

 The Act provides for a special approach towards the prevention and treatment of juvenile delinquency and provides a framework for the protection, treatment and rehabilitation of children in the purviewof the juvenile justice system. This law, brought in compliance of Child Rights Convention, repealed the earlier Juvenile Justice Act of 1986.

  

THE PREAMBLE OF THE ACT:-

           An Act to provide for the care, protection, treatment, development and rehabilitation of neglected or delinquent juveniles and for the adjudication of certain matters relating to and disposition of, delinquent juveniles.

Section 21 Says(Amendment 2006):-

      “Prohibition of publication of name, etc., of juvenile or child in need of care and protection involved in any proceeding under the Act-(1) No report in any newspaper, magazine, news-sheet or visual media of any inquiry regarding a juvenile in conflict with law or a child in need of care and protection under this Act shall disclose the name, address or school or any other particulars calculated to lead to the identification of the juvenile or child shall nor shall any picture of any such juvenile or child shall be published: Provided that for any reason to be recorded in writing, the authority holding the inquiry may permit such disclosure, if in its opinion such disclosure is in the interest of the juvenile or the child. (2) Any person who contravenes the provisions of sub-section (1), shall be liable to a penalty which may extend to twenty-five thousand rupees”.( Courtesy Wikipedia)

SUPREME COURT OF INDIA ON JUVENILE JUSTICE ACT, 2000:-

                                    The Act envisaged treating minors on the wrong side of law with compassion and to put them through a reformative programme to ensure they do not slip into the big bad world when they grow up. That was the precise reason why the Act contemplated proper remand homes, juvenile justice boards and child welfare committees in every district.

                But, a Bench comprising Justices R V Raveendran and H L Gokhale had a very poor opinion about the implementation of the law after senior advocate Colin Gonsalves pointed out that only four states and Union territories -- Daman & Diu, Meghalaya, Chandigarh and West Bengal -- have fully implemented the Act.

The response of additional solicitor general P P Malhotra that "it is for the the states to implement the Act and the Centre had nothing to do with it" did not help much in assuaging the anguish of the Bench. It said: "Implementation of the Act is in a pathetic condition and the Centre says it has nothing to do with it. Why do you enact a law then?"

This terse remark made Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam to step in and assure the court that he would devise a mechanism in consultation with the Centre and the state governments for proper implementation of the socially beneficial law. "The Act needs to be implemented in a completely modern basis with sensitization of every member of the JJ Board," he said.

Referring to Section 4 of the Act requiring each state to constitute a Juvenile Justice Board in every district, the Bench said that was the most important part of the legislation, but the Act has been made a mockery. The court granted four weeks time to the SG to report back about the results of his efforts towards implementation of the law. (courtesy TOI).

JUDGMENTS OF HON'BLE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA:

1. Sanjay Suri & Anr Vs Delhi Administration, Delhi & Anr [1988, Supp SCC 160]

2. Sanat kumar Sinha Vs State of Bihar & others [1991(2)]

3.state of karnataka Vs Harshad [2005 CriLJ 2357(karnataka)]

4. Rajinder Chandra Vs State of Chhatisgarh & Anthr [2002 SCC287]

5. Ravinder Singh Gorkhi Vs State of U.P [(2006)5SCC 584]

THE FACTS BEHIND JUVENILE JUSTICE ACT:-

            The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000 is more in line 

with the recent thinking and the emerging need of the treatment and handling 

of juveniles. The objective of this legislation is to ensure the care, protection and 

development needs of the children who are either neglected or have come into 

conflict with law constituting delinquency. 

The status of implementation of JJ Act has been notified on the website of the 

Ministry of Child and Family Welfare. The information columns of different 

states show their progress mainly about establishment of various institutions 

as per provisions of this Act. While this information merely gives a very primary 

idea about basic preparation made in these states, it definitely does not provide 

any clue about the quality and effectiveness of the enforcement of this Act.   

Even at the Ministerial level (cited at : http://wcd.nic.in/welcome.html) the 

state of implementation of juvenile justice was not found satisfactory. It is 

stated “…….these policies and legislations for children have on the whole 

suffered from weak implementation, owing to scant attention to issues of child 4

protection, resulting in scarce resources, minimal infrastructure, and 

inadequate services to address protection problems.” 

THE BOTTLE NECK OF J.J.ACT:

1.  The act fails to express the minimum age, below which the Act would not be 

applicable. The definition of juvenile delinquency provides very little scope for 

pettyacts to be dealt within the community.  

2 There is no concept of parental responsibility in generating situations ripe for 

delinquency under this Act. In many cases, the parents place the children in 

situations where their exploitation and abuse become imminent.  

3. The education, training and recreation of children, who are in observation 

homes, have not been provided for. Besides, basic or school education, even 

higher education and training of these children should be considered in this 

Act.  

4. The Act fails to provide for procedural guarantees like right to counsel and 

right to speedy trial 

5. The Act does not take into account the orders and directions of the Supreme 

Court.  

6. It empowers the Juvenile Justice Board to give a child in adoption; even 

though, it is the Child Welfare Committee that deals with children in need of 

care and protection. The Act is silent on inter-country adoption. There is no 

linkage between the Juvenile Justice Act 2000 and the other legal provisions 

relating to children, for instance child labor, primary education, sexual abuse, 

adoption, disabilities and health. 

7. Juvenile Justice thrives under the shadow of the adult criminal justice 

agencies and institutions (like the police). Moreover, the juvenile Justice 

adjudicatory cadres are drawn from the pool of the magistrates from the state. 

The Act does not cast any obligation on the part of the state.