Supreme Court Advocacy : PSLC's Expertise and Authority

The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 (“Act”) has been in effect from 13.12.2015. Amongst its substantial provisions is Section 15 and Section 18, wherein vide Section 15 of the Act, if a crime is committed by a juvenile who has completed or is above 16 years of age, a preliminary assessment shall be conducted by the Board to ascertain the mental and physical capacity of such juvenile to commit such offense, his ability to understand the consequences of the offense and the circumstances in which he allegedly committed the offense. Furthermore, vide Section 18 (3) of the Act, if the Board, in view of the aforesaid preliminary report comes to the conclusion that a trial has to be conducted and such child be treated as an adult, then the Board may transfer the trial to the Children’s Court having jurisdiction.

Since, the Act came in effect from 13.12.2015, the crimes which were committed before 13.12.2015 by a juvenile who has completed or is above 16 years of age, could easily claim the defense of juvenility and such aforementioned report for the purpose of trial as an adult would not come into play.

It is a settled position of law that the claim of juvenility could be made at any stage of the criminal proceedings even after the conviction and sentence is imposed as also observed by the Hon’ble Supreme Court in a case titled “Abuzar Hossain vs. State of West Bengal”, reported in “(2012) 10 SCC 489”.

In view of the same the Hon’ble Supreme Court in a very recent case titled “State of Madhya Pradesh vs. Ramji Sharma & Anr.” cited as “(2024) 10 SCR 411, 2024 INSC 747” faced similar facts wherein a juvenile was involved in a crime committed on 17.01.2002 and at that point of time, he was a child of age about 17 years and 3 months.

It is pertinent to note herein that such claim of juvenility had been ignored in all the previous proceedings till such claim was taken up before the Hon’ble Apex Court in Miscellaneous Application post disposal of the Criminal Appeal against the Juvenile before the Hon’ble Court. The Hon’ble Supreme Court while considering the fact that the convicted Applicant was aged about 17 years and 3 months when the offense was committed, he could not be liable to be tried as an adult in view of the settled position of law. Thereby the conviction of the juvenile was set aside on claim of juvenility and he stands acquitted.