Injustices galore in juvenile justice
First-ever study on justice delivery for children in conflict with law
By : R Ayyappan
Update: 2014-11-15 05:42 GMT
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Even hardened criminals have their rights protected, not children implicated in serious crimes. The Social Justice Department has asked the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) to conduct the first-ever comprehensive study on the justice delivery for children in conflict with law.
The initial brief was to assess the condition of observation homes and special homes in the state. Observation homes are where children suspected to be involved in crimes are placed. There are 14 such homes in the state, 13 for boys and one for girls. The state has two special homes and these are places where convicted children are lodged.
But there is more to juvenile justice than the homes. The major pillars of the juvenile justice system – the police and the judiciary, are wobbly. “There is a shocking ignorance of juvenile justice rules,” a top Social Justice official said. According to law, a child who is suspected for a crime should be produced before the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) within 24 hours. This has never happened.
There have been cases where children below the age of 18 have spent months in jail. “It could either be ignorance or convenience on the part of the police. When an adult and a child are involved in a crime, the cops find it easy to prepare a single FIR and send both to jail,” the official said.
Even JJBs are not above board. “There were instances when JJBs have handed over child suspects to the police for taking statements for more than a day. The law is unequivocally against this,” the official said. Then there is the principle of ‘fresh start’. Once the punishment is served, the police should destroy the case records of a child. “This means that a juvenile crime should not be mentioned even when there is a passport verification. The police seems to be completely in the dark about this,” said Eby George, the state coordinator of TISS.
Eby said that all such issues would be brought under the purview of the study. Eby said that the study would also give prominence to the reintegration of the juvenile in conflict with law back into the society.