Medical Report Or Education Certificate

Age Determination of ‘Children’ Under Juvenile Justice System

- Chhaya Khosla

A ‘juvenile’ or ‘child’ under the juvenile justice system, is one who has not completed a specific age as per law and does not bear resemblance as an adult and who can be made legally answerable for his criminal activities. The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) Act, 2015, defines a ‘juvenile’ under Section 2(35), as a child below the age of eighteen years. The Juvenile Justice Act aims at adjudicating and disposing of the cases dealing with juveniles, while keeping in mind the “best interest of the child”. The procedures and decisions or orders relating to rehabilitation, apprehension, detention, prosecution, penalty or imprisonment and social reintegration of children in conflict with law are done in a child friendly manner by the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB), which is constituted in each District for exercising the powers and discharging its functions relating to juveniles in conflict with law.

The Juvenile Justice Act being a beneficial legislation, aims at benefitting the children only. The fact that a person alleged to have committed the crime was juvenile or child at the time of commission of offence, is most important aspect of the juvenile justice system and this plea of juvenility can be raised at any stage of criminal proceeding. It does not matter that such plea was not raised during the trial and first time this issue is taken up in appeal or revision proceeding. If sentence is passed against the accused in absence of the fact that accused was a juvenile at the time of commission of the offence, accused can take the ‘plea of juvenility’ in appeal against the said sentence. For example, if sentence is passed and accused is languishing in jail, he can file appeal, revision or file Special Leave Petition before the apex court and take his plea of juvenility.

In Upendra Pradhan v. State of Orissa, AIR 2015 SC (Criminal) 1125