JUVENILES TO BE TRIED AS ADULTS- IS IT EASY TO DECIDE?

Law

The Juvenile Justice System of India is based on reformation, rehabilitation, treatment and the essence of restorative justice, rather than retribution. Besides procedural safeguards, there has to be an effective setup for children, which provides intensive individualised attention, care and protection to every child who has somehow walked into its fold owing to neglect or conflict with the law. ‘Best interest of the child’ or ‘to be presumed to be innocent’ does not mean that the child is immune from criminal charges, especially if they are heinous in nature. Beginning from the Children’s Act of 1960 to the Juvenile Justice Act, of 1986, the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, of 2000, and the 2015 Juvenile Justice Act, all of them resonate with the core intent of the reform of the child in conflict with the law as also to apply necessary penal consequences. Until the Delhi gang rape case (2012), the Juvenile Justice Boards gave its decision focussing on the reformation aspect, but post-Nirbhaya’s case they are leaning towards the punitive aspect. This article will focus on the aspect of the need for children in the age group of 16-18 years, to be tried as adults for the heinous crime committed by them.

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