Juvenile Justice Bill clears LS hurdle

LS PASSES BILL THAT WILL PERMIT JUVENILES IN THE AGE GROUP OF 16-18 YEARS TO BE TRIED AS ADULTS FOR HEINOUS CRIMES

NEW DELHI: Amid concer ns expressed by Opposition that the new measure could be misused against tribal and Dalit children in particular, the Lok Sabha on Thursday passed a bill empowering prosecuting agencies to conduct trials of children in the age group of 16-18 years under laws for adults for crimes that were “heinous” in nature.

Elaborating on the specifics of the legislation — enacted in the backdrop of the involvement of a 16-year-old in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang rape case — women and child development minister Maneka Gandhi insisted that the bill was “pro-child” and one that struck a “fine balance” to “bring justice to the victims and also ensure the rights of children”.

Called the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Bill — the measure was passed by a voice vote — after the government agreed to delete Clause7 which had stated that a child arrested for a ‘heinous crime’ at the age of 16 would be tried as an adult after completing the age of 21 years.

Quoting figures of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), the minister said that 28,830 children in the 16-18 age group of the total number of the country’s 47.2 crore children had been convicted for crimes in 2012-13.

Of these, 3,883 had been charged with ‘heinous crimes’.

Responding to concer ns of Opposition MPs including Shashi Tharoor (Congress), Supriya Sule (NCP) and NK Premchandran (RSP), Gandhi said that the new law was intended only as a ‘deterrent’ and that only a miniscule minority of children would come under its ambit.

While conceding that the growth in juvenile crimes was an outcome of socio-economic factors, Gandhi said that “poverty could not become the excuse for heinous crimes”.