A Study On Juvenile Justice System In India – Protection For Child Offenders

ABSTRACT:

Today’s growing bud is tomorrow’s future. Children are the growing bud of today’s world and
would be the developers of the Nation in the near future. Age is the most important determination
of any person. The only thing that grows simultaneously forever for every human is their age. The
acts done by the person would be considered according to their age, in that case, age plays a vital
role. The Law differentiates the offender to be classified for punishment according to their age. A
child is considered to be Juvenile and hence provided lesser punishment and provided care and
protection under the Juvenile Justice Act whereas any person above the age of 16-18 years are
considered as an adult and are punished under the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973. This
differentiation does not create any bias in the society, it is a special privilege extended to the child
offenders who had done the crime without foreseeing the consequences or not knowing the nature
of crime to save their future. This Act focuses that a child cannot be treated as an adult while
looking into the commission of crime and punishing for the same. However, the same law cannot
be used as a platform for the juvenile offender to continue the heinous crime with mens rea as the
Juvenile Justice Act considers and investigates all the reasonable cause in relation to the crime.

KEYWORDS: children, crime, justice, care, protection, age, mens rea, adult, privilege.

INTRODUCTION:

India is a country in which adequate children exists. In that case, numerous constitutional powers
are specially enforced for the protection of the children. Fundamental rights as well as Directive
Principles of State Policy under the Indian Constitution empower the state to provide protection to
the children from being abused as offenders. The children below the tender age are given
opportunities to live a dignified and peaceful life in spite of committing certain offences. As the
name itself is derived from the latin tern ‘juvenis’ which means the children below the tender age
and hence are considered to be juvenile. Juvenile can be defined as a person who has not attained
the age of majority. They are the children who commit offences at their age of minority. They
commit offences like an adult offender and hence at certain cases would be punished like an adult
offender. Juvenile is a person who is alleged to have violated the laws and had acted against the law
causing an illegal act. The children are considered to be the real assert of the nation. The protection
for the Juvenile is provided under the Juvenile Justice Act with the main intention that a child who
does not have the maturity or who does not know the consequences of any act done, shall not be
treated as the child offender. However, our constitution is a law which is Reformative than being
Punitive. In such case, for the welfare of the child, the Reformative law is been enhanced. To

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regulate the Juvenile Justice System, A board called the Juvenile Justice Board is constituted. The
juvenile justice (Care and Protection) Act,2015 is the recent amendment made for the juvenile
where the age limit of the child offenders is reduced from 18 to 16. Hence, the child above age of
16 shall be considered as adult offenders and can be punished for heinous offences as an adult.

AIM OF THE STUDY:

The main objective of this study is:

 To know about the Juvenile Justice System

 To analyze about the Juvenile Board.

 To examine about the observation and special homes.

 To study about the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) Act.

HYPOTHESIS:

Ho – Juvenile Justice System is not used as a platform for safeguarding and protecting the
livelihood of the child in accordance with law.

Ha – Juvenile Justice System is a platform for safeguarding and protecting the livelihood of the
child in accordance with law.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY:

The research methodology involves primary and secondary sources of collection of data. Primary
source is collection of data by the person themselves whereas secondary source of data is collecting
information from the source where some other person had already done the research. This research
paper involved the need of secondary data. The information used in the research paper is with the
data given in the books, online source, research papers. The ideas and contents in the research were
made with the help of the secondary sources. I had done it by collecting the information up to my
knowledge and brought out my concern and ideas relating to the topic.

ANALYSIS:

JUVENILE JUSTICE SYSTEM IN INDIA

Juvenile Justice system is based on the principles of safeguarding, protecting and promoting the
child offenders. The system in India is prevailing since 1986 where the Indian parliament has

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enacted certain safeguards and protection for the offenders who had done the crime below the age
of 18. At present, with the emerging juvenile crimes, the age of the child offenders has been
reduced to 16. The children who had done the crime without knowing the real intention of crime
would be safeguarded by the juvenile justice system in India. The Juvenile Justice Act creates a
justice system in which the children up to 18 year, who commit the offence, would be punished
with less imprisonment than an adult offender. However, the juvenile will not be treated equal to an
adult which is the actual benefit or protection extended to a juvenile. Article 14 of the Indian
Constitution provides equal protection to all the citizens, the citizen may be a adult or a juvenile or
others. Juveniles are the growing buds of the future India. The crimes relating to juvenile are also
growing day by day with the developing country. Though there are many protections extended to
the juvenile, yet they are also misleading. The main notion of the juvenile justice system is to
provide proper rehabilitation to the child offenders. Every person would be given an opportunity to
survive as a good person, in such case, a child who would not know the consequences of the crime
done would be protected under the Indian Law by the Juvenile Justice System. Apart from
providing protection, they are also provided with all the privileges as a normal man. A Juvenile
justice board is formed to look after the welfare of the child offender. However, even after the
implementation of Acts for the protection of child offenders there are many controversies as to
whether the law provides justice or not. The objective behind this system is to supersede the
juvenile delinquency and provide protection to the children below the age group of 16 years who
commits heinous offence without knowing the consequences of the same. Where children who are
juvenile do any act of rape, they would be punished with a serious imprisonment as per the 2018
Ordinance. India is a country where it emphasis more on reforming the offenders, be it, a adult or a
child. In that case, the child would be differed from an adult. The treatment of reformative applies
more to juvenile offenders. The government keeps in mind the future of the child who commits
crimes and to safeguard the same, they follow the juvenile justice system in India. As the name
itself states the system is formed to provide justice to the child offenders.

JUVENILE JUSTICE BOARD

Juvenile accused of a crime are brought under the Juvenile Justice Board for the rehabilitation.
They are brought under the juvenile justice board under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection)
Act, 2015. They will not be punished under the Criminal procedure code. They would not be
treated as criminals. The purpose of a separate board is to rehabilitate the offender than to provide
punitive punishment. The aim of the board is to hold the child in fault of the offence made not
through punishing them but through providing counselling for the child offender so that they move

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away from committing the offence again in the future. The juvenile justice board consists of the
metropolitan magistrate, judicial magistrate and social workers where at least one worker should be
a woman forming a unit. They posses’ different functions in the unit but still their ultimate goal are
to provide protection for the young offenders. The main function of the board is to decide upon
what action should be given to the child to rehabilitate them in order to prevent them from
committing heinous crimes.

A juvenile is brought to the juvenile justice board by the police officer or special juvenile police
unit. A child would be brought under the custody of the police and would stay for 24 hours and then
would be taken to the juvenile justice board by the authority. On order of the board, the juvenile
would be moved to the custody of the observation homes where the juvenile would be sent for
observation and would be protected. The juvenile would be either released on bail or would be
investigated by an officer who can also be a probation officer directed by the juvenile justice board.
The board with the report of the police officer or probation officer after the investigation would
consider the plea of the juvenile. If the juvenile is found guilty he would be directed as per the
orders of the board, if not, he would be sent for the rehabilitation by calling further investigating of
the evidences and witnesses. Usually, the juvenile justice board is child-friendly working for the
welfare and safeguard of the child offenders.

OBSERVATION HOMES

Observation homes are temporary homes for the offenders under trial. It is the reception for time
being for a juvenile in conflict with law during pendency of a inquiry against the juvenile. The
children brought under the purview of Indian Penal Code and other legislations are taken to the
juvenile justice board as per the section 4 of the Juvenile Justice Act 2000 (Amendment Act, 2006).
The juvenile are protected in the observation home as a probation period of 4 months.

Section 8 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) Act, 2000 deals with the observation home.
These houses are not only used to keep the child during the pendency of inquiry but also to keep the
children who are homeless, neglected and needed protection. The most important effectiveness of
such homes is that they provide education, training, recreation, rehabilitation, proper health care,
controlled discipline and all facilities good for their peaceful environment. This is done because
when a child is exposed to the law for the first time through such homes if he is treated arrogantly,
he would become suspicious towards the court.

SPECIAL HOMES

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Children who are convicted under Section 14 of the Juvenile Justice Act 2000 (Amendment Act,
2006) would be sent to special homes for long term rehabilitation. The state government may by
itself voluntarily or by non-governmental organizations form special homes for the protection and
welfare of the children who had committed offences as per section 18 of the juvenile justice act.
The special homes should be registered in every district wherever the homes are situated. The state
government shall also provide for the monitoring and management of special homes for the
betterment of the standard of the homes. The children in such homes would be residing for a long
term. Hence, they would be kept separately based on their nature of crime, age, sex, mental and
physical status of the child. Such segregation does not amount to discrimination. This is done to
protect the stability and mentality of the innocent offenders.

JUVENILE JUSTICE ACT

Juvenile justice Act is the laws implemented specially for the juveniles. Now a days, crimes by
juvenile are increasing more and more. This is due to the fact that they have special protection and
care and thus can escape from the punishments. But from the recent amendments made, the
situation is changing. Any offender being a child or an adult commits heinous offence would be
punished severely. The age of juvenile is been reducing as the age factor becomes an advantage for
such offenders. In that case, the juvenile justice act turns to be amended for the welfare of the
victims bringing out stringent rules and procedures for the child offenders. The change in the act
happens with the change in the nature of crimes. The Case Ram Singh And Others Vs. State Of
Delhi or otherwise called as Delhi gang rape case or Nirbhaya case, has turned out to be the
landmark case during 2012. Here one of the accused involved in the gang rape was a below 18
years and hence he was protected with lesser punishment than other adults involved in the same
crime. This was felt injustice and so the legislature had brought in amendment in the Act stating
that that age of the juvenile is reduced to 16 years and where the child offender can foresee the
consequence of the offence or where he knowingly causes the crime knowing the nature of the
offence with the intention to do the same, he is treated equally to an adult offender.

The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) Act, 2000 has been amended to Juvenile Justice (Care
and Protection) Act, 2015. After the amendments being made, there would be no extra care
extending to the juvenile. The reason being the amendment is to reduce the nature of crimes by the
juvenile. When a juvenile causes any serious crime, which as a prudent man should be punishment
severely, then the amendment would be made as to make the juvenile law stringent so that the
juvenile does not take his laws as a advantage for committing his crime.

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The Juvenile Justice Act places juveniles in two categories:

 Juvenile in conflict with law who are handles by the state government.
 Juvenile in need of care and protection who are taken care by the state government and
welfare committees.

Thus the Juvenile Justice Act lay as a protection for the child offenders who would really seek
protection and punish the child offender who does heinous offences knowing the consequence of
the same, taking the law in their hands.

RECOMMENDATION

Nowadays we all know that heinous crimes are committed by Juveniles and debating about the
punishment to be awarded to the juveniles. The juvenile justice act is enacted to reform such
offenders and provide punishment in such a way that no other person does the same crime. There
should be more strict laws enacted so that fear of doing heinous crimes should be created. Child
should get feared thinking of the consequence of the crime he is going to commit. Providing
protection to the first time offenders does not take back the crime done or rather does not provide
any relief to the victim. They affected party stays affected but the juvenile is protected by law or
they are provided with less punishment which imparts Justice in certain circumstances. Hence, the
laws enacted should be rigid creating fear in the minds of the offenders thus stopping them from
committing the same.

CONCLUSION

With the emerging crimes, our law amends the punishments and provisions. In case of increasing
crimes in today's scenario is juvenile crimes. The crime rates with child offenders are increasing
more and more. Our Law provides all possible ways to rehabilitate, reform the offenders to reduce
the crime rates in India. According to the juvenile Justice, protecting the child from becoming
habitual offender and to continue his life as a good citizen is it's motive. Yet many crimes still
evolves making the protection to turn out in it's negative way. The juvenile Justice act is been
amended as per the changing in the nature of crimes. Now at present due to a violent issue an
ordinance as been passed which has brought strict punishment for juveniles and it had made sure
that any child who does the crime as an adult with mens rea will not be protected but rather would
be punished with severe punishment.

REFERENCES:

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