Penalty for rape bid: Serve water to lawyers

PATNA: A juvenile justice board has asked a 17-year-old boy to serve water for a month to lawyers as a punishment for trying to rape a six-year old girl at Biharsharif in Nalanda district.

Holding the boy guilty of rape bid, the chief magistrate of the juvenile justice board, Biharsharif, on Thursday asked him to serve water to lawyers and visitors coming to the lawyers’ association building there.

The family members of the convict have agreed to make available pitcher and glasses so that the juvenile delinquent could serve the punishment.

Prosecution lawyer Ram Narayan Paswan was circumspect, when he said, “The court took a lenient view considering the age of the accused and gave him an opportunity to correct himself.”

The judgement, however, came in for severe criticism from Vikram Srivastava, a practising lawyer at the Delhi high court and founder of Independent Thought, a national organisation working on child rights law.

“The order is in bad taste. It contravenes the premise and basic principles of juvenile justice – dignity and worth, positive measure, privacy and confidentiality, fresh start and most importantly best interest,” he said.

The lawyer added that the state could have responded responsibly by providing the child reformative services. “However, inflicting constant humiliation and encouraging child labour would only defeat the purposes of the Act,” he said.

The minor boy had tried to rape a six-year-old girl at Panhar village on January 31, 2016. He had lured his victim into his house by telling her that he would show her father’s photograph on his mobile phone.

The boy, however, fled when the victim’s family members rushed into the house on hearing the screams of the girl.

CRITICISING THE ORDER AGAINST THE MINOR, A LAWYER SAID IMPOSING HUMILIATION AND ENCOURAGING CHILD LABOUR WOULD NOT ENSURE REFORMATION