Juvenile Justice Bill: Why section of civil society is opposing the amendment reducing age of conviction from 18 to 16?

Harsh punishment cannot be a deterrent and this in turn could make the juveniles hardcore criminals. Out of the total crimes recorded by National Crime Records bureau, less than 3 per cent crimes are committed by juveniles.

Written by: Mohammed Uzair Shaikh

Published: December 23, 2015, 5:06 AM IST

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https://www.india.com/news/india/juvenile-justice-bill-why-section-of-civil-society-is-opposing-the-amendment-reducing-age-of-conviction-from-18-to-16-807153/ Copy

Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Amendment Bill 2015 was passed in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday, a day before the Winter Session of Parliament comes to an end. The law-makers in the Upper House, under considerable public pressure, discussed the legislation on top priority and cleared the amendment bill with a rare display of consensus. Except for the Left MPs, major political parties did not objected to the provisions of the law.

Although the amended law would not work in a retrospective manner, it satisfies the popular demand of lowering the age of juvenile conviction from 18 to 16. However, a section of civil society has raised doubts over the decision, calling it a populist move which does not analyses its disastrous impact in the long run. (ALSO READ: Juvenile Justice Bill finally passed in Rajya Sabha: All you need to know about the amended law)

“The juveniles in the age group of 16-18 years will be in traumatic situation if they are brought before the criminal court for having committed serious crimes. The basic premise to enact such a law is public anger over a recent crime pertaining to rape and murder. But such step obviously will lead to retributive justice, not juvenile justice,” argues P. Baburaj, a former member of the Juvenile Justice Board.

Another contentious aspect of the amended bill is the grant of discretionary powers to Juvenile Justice Board. According to the new legislation, the Juvenile Justice Board would ascertain whether the convicted juvenile (between 16-18 years of age) is fit to be charged as an adult or he/she should be sen to correctional remand homes.

There were two reasons which necessitated the passage of the bill an urgent manner: First, making provisions in the law that those between 16-18 years of age could not easily get away with heinous crimes of murder, rape, kidnapping, dacoity, etc. Second, there is a collective opinion that tough laws would depreciate the crime rate.

However, the latter goal set be the lawmakers would fail to create an impact. Harsh punishment cannot be a deterrent and this in turn could make the juveniles hardcore criminals. Out of the total crimes recorded by National Crime Records bureau, less than 3 per cent crimes are committed by juveniles, whereas, 97 per cent are committed by adults who are well-aware of the stringent punishment they would face on conviction.

The wounds of 2012 Delhi gang-rape are far from being healed. Although, the rightful justice could not be done to Nirbhaya, the political class made sure to take hasty steps to reconcile her parents. When the Parliament was discussing the amendments to the crucial law, the emotions were at an all-time high. One should contemplate on the remarks made by TMC leader Dereck O’Brien, who said: “If my 20-year old daughter would had been raped in such a manner…as a father I would have bought a gun and shot the man.”