Minors accused of heinous crimes to be tried as adults as Lok Sabha passes Juvenile Justice Bill

New Delhi: Those under the age of 18 years accused of committing heinous crimes could soon be facing the court as adults after the Lok Sabha on Thursday passed the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Bill. The Bill paves the way for children in the 16-18 age group accused of heinous crimes to be tried as adults and face a stricter punishment.

The Bill states that in case a heinous crime has been committed by a person in the age group of 16-18 years it will be examined by a Juvenile Justice Board to assess if the crime was committed as a 'child' or as an 'adult'.

Lok Sabha passed the Bill after the government agreed to delete Clause 7 which said that "any person, who is apprehended after completing the age of 21 years, for committing any serious or heinous offence when such person was between the age of 16 to 18 years, then he shall, subject to the provisions of this Act, be tried as an adult."

The trial of the case will take place accordingly by the board which will consist of psychologists and social experts. The legislation, which would replace the existing Juvenile Justice Act, 2000, was proposed in view of increasing number of serious offences being committed by persons in the age group of 16-18 years.

According to data from National Crime Records Bureau, crimes by juveniles in the age group of 16-18 years have increased, especially in certain categories of heinous crimes. The number of murder cases against juveniles rose from 531 in 2002 to 1,007 in 2013. Similarly, cases of rape and assault with intent to outrage the modesty of women have gone up from 485 and 522 in 2002 to 1,884 and 1,424 in 2013 respectively.

In 2013, 933 cases of kidnapping and abduction were registered against juveniles, which was 704 in 2012. According to Women and Child Development Ministry, more than 250 civil society organisations, individuals and experts had given their comments on the draft Bill which were taken into consideration before giving it a final shape.

New offences, including illegal adoption, corporal punishment in child care institutions, use of children by terrorist groups and offences against disabled children have also been incorporated in the proposed legislation.

The amended Bill also proposes to streamline adoption procedures for orphaned, abandoned and surrendered children by making mandatory registration of all institutions engaged in providing child care.

The legislation proposes several rehabilitation and social integration measures for institutional and non- institutional children. It provides for sponsorship and foster care as completely new measures.

At least 42 official amendments were moved by the government to the bill which were adopted, while all the amendments moved by opposition members like Shashi Tharoor (Congress) and N K Premchandran (RSP) were negated.

Opposition members opposed the proposal to raise the age bar, expressing apprehensions about misuse and violation of rights of children by the new law which is being enacted against the backdrop of the involvement of a 16-year-old in the 2012 Nirbhaya gangrape case in Delhi.

However, Minister for Women and Child Develoment Maneka Gandhi said she has tried to be "pro-child" and made efforts to strike a "fine balance" between justice to victims and rights of children.

Rejecting the allegation that she only loved animals and not children, she said the new law was intended to be a "deterrent" to ensure that juveniles refrain from crimes and avoid spoiling their lives.

Justifying the need for the new law, she said according to NCRB, around 28,000 juveniles had committed various crimes in 2013 and of them, 3887 had allegedly committed heinous crimes.

She also cited a recent Supreme Court order wherein the Apex court had favoured a relook at the law in view of the growing number of juveniles involved in heinous crimes.

"The new law is meant to apply to such 3887 juveniles out of 47.2 crore juvenile population of the country," Maneka Gandhi said while seeking to allay concerns of the members.

Rejecting the contention by opposition that the recommendations of the parliamentary Standing Committee were disregarded, she said 11 out of 13 recommendations have been accepted.

To concerns expressed by some members that the new law may be misused against the poor, 'adivasis' and other deprived sections of the society, the Minister said most of the crimes are committed against the poor people and she was trying to ensure justice to them.

She underscored the point that poverty may provoke anger and envy but it cannot be used as an excuse for crimes. She suggested that there could be some other factors for crimes.

"We do not want to be mean to children. This Act is a deterrent," said Maneka, as she rejected allegations that while she loved animals, she was not favourable to juveniles.

To the contention of some opposition members that there should not be any knee-jerk reaction over Nirbhaya case, she said even a "single crime is equally worthy of punishment" and any law cannot be lopsided.

She underlined that under the proposed law, any juvenile aged between 16 years and 18 years will stay in Borstal, an institution meant for housing adolescent offenders, till the age of 21 years whatever be the sentence.

Also, under the new law there will be no provision for death sentence or life imprisonment.

At the age of 21 years, their behaviour will be assessed and if an offender has reformed, his sentence may be curtailed.

Their cases will be tried by a Juvenile Justice Board, which will include a sociologist and a child rights activist, Gandhi said while underlining that she had prepared the bill after exhaustive consultations, including with judges who tried the Nirbhaya case.

Maneka rejected the opposition contention that the age of 16 years was too less to be tried under laws meant for adults and violative of international conventions.

She said under the global conventions, definition of age for such crimes is contextual and depends of economic, social and other conditions prevailing in a particular country.

Giving examples, she said such age criteria in England and Australia is 10 years while in Argentina it is 16 years.

She said another positive aspect of the proposed law related to adoptions for foster care, wherein families can take custody of children to look after them and educate them, without really adopting them. Funding for it will be made by the government, she said.

When Deepender Hooda (Congress) said that allocation of funds for child welfare schemes had been reduced, the Minister said Rs 430 crore earmarked under ICPS scheme for setting up juvenile centres etc was sufficient. "Where it may hurt is ICDS (allocation) and the government is having a look at it," she added.