Nirbhaya Case: Of Juveniles And Justice

The passage of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Bill, 2015, in Parliament exposes the vulnerability of the system in the wake of a misinformed and hysterical campaign for legislative changes to punish juveniles committing heinous crimes as adults.

- V. Venkatesan & T.K. Rajalakshmi

 

Political maturity is considered to be an attribute of Members of the Rajya Sabha. Indirectly elected, they are expected to keep a distance from the compulsions of electoral politics while deliberating on key legislation. More importantly, as members of the second chamber, they are supposed to give due weight to reason rather than let themselves be swayed by emotions.

On December 22, however, this theoretical understanding of the Council of States came under severe test when the Upper House debated the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Bill, 2015, which was already passed by the Lok Sabha on May 7. Like the Lok Sabha, the Rajya Sabha, too, passed the Bill with a voice vote, overlooking serious concerns expressed by some members over certain provisions that made a mockery of the government’s intent to fulfil certain objectives of the Bill.

It was obvious that the Bill’s hasty passage in the Rajya Sabha was a surrender to the public pressure mounted against the release of the juvenile who was convicted in the case of the gang rape and murder of 23-year-old “Nirbhaya” in the capital on December 16, 2012. The juvenile, now 21, was released on December 20, three years after his conviction and sentencing, under the Juvenile Justice Act, 2000. He was taken to an undisclosed destination to protect him from public fury. To many observers, the public anger had more to do with inadequate punishment to the juvenile under the old Act rather than with the absence of legal provisions to send a juvenile committing a heinous offence to an adult prison. Seen in this light, even the 2015 Bill appeared to be a disproportionate response to the prevailing public sentiment.