The police probing the gang rape of a teenage girl in Hyderabad want to prosecute the five arrested minors as adults. This is allowed after the 2015 amendment to the Juvenile Justice Act, if they are accused of a ‘heinous crime’ and are between the ages of 16 and 18
Police officials, investigation the gang rape of a teenage girl in Hyderabad for which six accused have been arrested, said that they will push for five of the juveniles to be tried as adults.
Hyderabad Police Commissioner CV Anand said that this was to ensure that the arrested minors, between the ages of 16 and 18, get “maximum punishment”. Two of the accused are the son and the nephew of an All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) MLA and the third is son of a Telangana politician.
In the coming days, the police will file an application with the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB), seeking permission to try the five arrested juvenile boys as adults.
According to the 2015 amendment to the Juvenile Justice Act, minors accused of a “heinous offence” can be tried as adults in rare cases.
What is the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children Act) 2015?
The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children Act) was passed in Parliament in 2015 to replace the Juvenile Delinquency Law and the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children Act) 2000. One of the key provisions of the new law was allowing the trial of juveniles, aged 16 to 18, as adults in cases where the crimes were to be determined, according to The Indian Express report.
The nature of the crime and whether the minor should be tried as an adult is determined by a Juvenile Justice Board.
Why was the Act passed?
The Act was passed after the brutal gang rape and murder of a student in Delhi in December 2012. One of the six accused in the case was 17.
Following the crime, the Ministry of Child and Development proposed changes to the law to punish juvenile offenders, citing an increase in cases of offenders in that group.
There were demands to reduce the age of juvenile from 18 to 16, which faced opposition from child rights activists. The JS Verma Committee, formed to recommend amendments to the law, also stated that it was not inclined to reduce the age of a juvenile to 16. The amendment was made in 2015.
In the Delhi case, all the six accused were convicted for the rape and killing of a 23-year-old physiotherapy student in a moving bus. While four were executed in Tihar jail in March 2020, one died in jail.
The juvenile convict was released in 2015 after serving three years in a reform facility.
When can a juvenile be tried as an adult?
According to the 2015 Act, juveniles charged with heinous crimes and who are between the ages of 16 to 18 years can be tried as adults. For a Child in Conflict with Law (CCL) to be tried as an adult, age on the date of the offence decides whether the accused was an adult or a child.
The Act sets three criteria before the Juvenile Justice Board can decide to treat accused as adults – mental and physical capacity; ability to understand consequences; and the circumstances of the offence.
In February 2021, the Union Cabinet passed amendments to the Juvenile Justice Act, which included the category of “serious crimes” apart from heinous crimes.
Serious offences include offences with three to seven years of imprisonment.
What are heinous crimes and what’s the punishment?
The Bill defines “heinous offences” as those “for which the minimum punishment under the Indian Penal Code or any other law for the time being in force is imprisonment for seven years or more”.
Sexual offences and violent sexual crimes are considered as heinous crimes. Most heinous crimes have a minimum or maximum sentence of seven years.
According to the amendments, for a juvenile to be tried for a heinous crime as an adult, the punishment of the crime should not only have a maximum sentence of seven years or more but also a minimum sentence of seven years, according to a report in The Indian Express. The provision has been made to protect children and keep them out of the adult justice system.
Juveniles can also be tried under Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, Arms Act, Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act, Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act and Food Safety and Standards Act.
The front pages of newspapers show the reaction to the conviction of a 17-year-old juvenile in the Delhi gang rape. The Juvenile Justice Act, 2015, was passed after the case led to global outrage. AFP
Was the Act amended?
The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Amendment Bill, 2021, which sought to amend the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015, was passed in Rajya Sabha on 28 July 2021.
Under the 2015 Act, the crimes were categorised as heinous, serious and petty.
The 2021 Bill clarified that serious offences will also include offences for which maximum punishment is imprisonment of more than seven years, and minimum punishment is not prescribed or is less than seven years.
Serious offences include possession and sale of illegal substances like drugs and alcohol.
As per the 2021 amendments to the law, crimes that are punishable with imprisonment of more than seven years will be tried by the children’s court, which again decides whether the decision to treat the child as an adult is correct. Offences with punishment of less than seven years will be tried by a judicial magistrate.
Has any juvenile been tried as an adult since the Act was passed?
In 2016, a 17-year-old from Mumbai was booked for the murder of his three-year-old. The Mumbai city Juvenile Justice Board and the children’s court ordered that he be tried as an adult under the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015. However, in July 2022, the Bombay High Court set aside the ruling and directed that the accused be tried as a minor, saying, “For an adult offender, prison is the default opinion; for a juvenile it is the last resort.”
In the sensational 2017 murder case of a seven-year-old boy in Gurgaon’s Ryan International School, the Juvenile Justice Board recommended that the Class XI student responsible for the killing should be tried as an adult. An appeal is pending before the Supreme Court.
In 2019, a 17-year-old was awarded two life sentences by a local court in Hyderabad after he was tried as an adult in a sodomy and murder case of a 10-year-old boy.
What about the minors accused in the Hyderabad case?
All five minors in the Hyderabad gang-rape case are between 16 and 18 years; one of them is less than a month short of 18, reports NDTV.
According to the police, five of the arrested persons were involved in the rape in a car, while one of the minor boys was seen misbehaving with the girl but did not commit rape.
The girl and her attackers had met at a party at a pub in Hyderabad’s upscale Jubilee Hills on 28 May.
The survivor was at the party with a friend, who left early. She later met the group that assaulted her the same evening inside a vehicle. The girl had earlier filed a complaint of molestation but when the police took her statement later she revealed that she was sexually assaulted.
With inputs from agencies
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