Judging juvenile

Two year ago Amnesty International (Human Rights Organization) started a

campaign for increasing the age of juvenile in Jammu and Kashmir from 16
to 18 years,to press upon the state to bring the Juvenile justice Act in
consonance with the UN Convention on the rights of child because except in
J&K, all over India the age of Juvenile is 18 Years. But after the heinous act of
rape and murder of 23 yr old student, there arise a debate on the justice to
the victim or to the Juvenile, as among the perpetrator was a Juvenile and
was convicted and sentenced according to the Juvenile Act 2000.
Unequivocally this act of savagery arose the national conscience, and a vocal
and fortitude demand arises for a tough act against the juvenile also, even
debate on the legality and desirability of the juvenile act itself has been
generated .

Indias Underlying Principle

After Independence, The 1960 Children Act was enacted to tackle the
repercussion on children with the advent of industrialization which resulted in
an increasing child delinquency in large city specially petty crimes such as
theft. This act for the first time in India, prohibited the imprisonment of
children under any circumstances. It also provided for separate adjudicatory
bodies that is Children court and welfare board to deal with delinquent and
neglected children. In addition it added a three tier institution for the children
namely a n observatory home for children on whom the proceeding is
pending, special school for delinquent children and a children home for
neglected children. But it introduced a gender specific determination of
juvenile which is 16 for boys and 18 years for girls.

In 1986 Juvenile Justice act was enacted in conformity with other

international guideline for the juvenile, that are United Nation Declaration of
the Rights of the Child in 1959 and the 1985 United Nations standard
Minimum Rules for the Administration of the Juvenile Justice (Beijing
Rules).Albeit it took care the rights of the child but still has some lacunae.
With India became a signatory of the 1989 Convention on the Rights of Child
after ratifying it in 1992, the need for more uniform Juvenile act was felt.
After the United Nations Guideline for the Administration of Juvenile
Delinquency (Riyadh Guideline) ,and United Nations Rules for the Protection
of Juvenile Deprived of their liberty (JDL Rules),the provision of CRC got
amplified. India enacted the Juvenile Justice (Care & Protection of Children)
Act 2000 later amended in 2006 is the current act which deals with the
Juvenile offences.

Juvenile Debate

JJ act 2000 is a progressive legislation, which replaced the judicial process

with a reformatory regime, favoring supervised probation or stay in
observation home over imprisonment. With this, the aim is to reform the
young offender rather than putting them behind bar which often work to fan
the recidivist tendencies in them. This act has three important provision
different from the other legislations that are: 1 The Juvenile Court is replaced
by a three member Juvenile justice Board, secondly it introduced a uniform
Juvenile age that is 18 years for both boys and girls and the third is the
custodial sentence under section 15(1)(g) was to be limited to three years.
The last two provision is contentious among the different section of the
societies. And the buzz around its reform got bigger and have multitude
voice with the recent crime engaging young offenders.

Following American model is being cited for going strict with the young
offenders. But Indias crime statistics is different from that of America. With
its open policy the number of brutal crime including children is staggering
high in America, the rate of Juvenile offender is almost the half of the total
crime rate, in some of the school shooting cases the juvenile age was under
16 years. So all these increasing number of crimes forces the American
Congress to amend their Federal and state Juvenile law. In contrast in India,
according the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB ) data between 2001
and 2011 the Juvenile delinquency rate has ranged between 1.6 to 2.1 per
cent of total crime, and of these only 5 to 8 per cent are violent crimes like
murder and rape . Therefore the US model is hardly of any significant
relevance for India. As we have totally different strata and social problems
from that of America, which act to a larger extent for an upbringing a mental
makeup for offences in conflict with the law.

With the shaken conscience after the Delhi rape case, people emotion
poured for the justice to the departed soul. But the demand for a tough
Juvenile Punishment need to be rationally balanced. As in a nation governed
by the rule of law emotion should not over rule the rational behind the law
and a balanced Justice for all.

There is the misconception that Juvenile involved in heinous crime are

matured enough as like a adult, which is not exactly the case as pointed by
the Brain science expert. MacArthur Foundations undertaken a scientific
exploration of the adolescent brain systems, and established that any
deviant behavior is a function of two distinct sets of brain systems, namely
the socio emotional system and the cognitive control system that involve
different region of the brain which mature along different timetables. Thus
competence related abilities matured by 16 years, but the capacity relevant
to the decision about criminal culpability continues to mature till young
age. These findings are supported by brain science researcher Laurence
Steinberg who argue in his paper published in Issues in science and
technology( Spring 2012) thus : Adolescents should be viewed as
inherently less responsible than adults and should be punished less harshly
than adults ,even when the crime they are convicted of are identical .

Required Reform

So scientifically and socially it will be not fair to divert from the reformative
approach towards the retributive approach. Instead the reform methods itself
need a reform. We have to get rid of the complacent attitude that a mere
stint in the remand home or correctional home will reform the Juvenile. This
stereotype method needs a gradation as the atmosphere in many such
facilities is not conducive for reformation, and in fact may toughen or
entrench criminal propensities. Former Chairmen of Child Welfare
committee, a statutory body, S Syed Ahmed said There is nothing wrong in
the Juvenile act , if something need to be changed it is the functioning of the
correctional homes run by the govt. A report in India Today shows the bleak
poignant state of the remand homes, there are 815 remand homes with a
capacity of 35000. However there are more than 1.7 million juvenile
accused in India.Merely going by a differential process for juvenile offender
is not enough. It is obvious that the social contract underlying a lenient
regime require equal attention to be paid to the design and implementation
of a rehabilitation process. Juvenile convict of petty crimes and of one
convict of serious horrendous crime needs separate treatment in their
counseling and reformation as the former may tend toward the latter offence
if not guided properly . There is scope of more positive reform and
rehabilitation in Juvenile as compared to adult convict subjected proper
guidance.
Reference:

The Hindu

Sikander Khan