Parl panel rejects proposal to try juveniles as adults

NEW DELHI: A Parliamentary panel on Wednesday recommended that juveniles between 16 and 18 years of age, who commit heinous crimes, should not be treated as adult offenders — six months after the government paved way for a new law that aimed to treat such offenders as adults.

The Cabinet had last August approved the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Bill, 2014, which provided for treating juveniles older than 16 years charged with serious crimes as adults. If convicted, such juveniles may face a jail term but would not be awarded life sentence or death penalty.

The law for juveniles has been in focus since December 2012 after the brutal gang rape of a 23-year-old woman in the Capital, in which one of the six accused was a juvenile.

Opening a fresh debate on the law, the parliamentary standing committee on human resource development turned down the Cabinet’s decision on the grounds that it would go against Article 14 (equality before law) and Article 15 (3) (permitting the state to enact special laws for the protection of children) of the Constitution.

“Some incidents of juvenile crime, though a cause of serious concern should not be the basis for introducing drastic changes in the existing juvenile justice system,” the committee, headed by BJP Rajya Sabha MP Satya Narayan Jatiya, said in its report.

Observing that only 1.2 % of the total crimes in India were committed by juveniles and of this, 7% comprised murder and rape, the committee said such a low number could be tackled by the current system.

The committee also observed that the word “juvenile” carried a negative connotation and recommended that the title of the bill be changed to Justice for Children (Care & Protection of Children) Bill, 2014.