Juvenile has to stand trial: Kerala High Court

Kochi: The Kerala High Court has permitted an additional sessions court to try a 17-year-old boy, a Tamil Nadu native, who is in conflict with law. The court observed that if the juvenile is found guilty of all or any of the charges against him, the sessions judge should forward him to the Juvenile Justice Board.    The court was considering a petition filed by  Sekhar, also known as Raji of Tamil Nadu, who is the 4th accused in a case registered in 1992 in Palakkad. The case is pending before the additional sessions judge-IV.

There are altogether four accused in the case. They were charged under Sections 201, 302 (murder) and 392 of IPC read with IPC 34. The offences were allegedly committed on October 18, 1992. All the accused filed applications before the court below requesting to transfer the case to the Juvenile Justice Board.  They contended that they were juveniles on the date of the incident. The additional sessions judge conducted an inquiry and found the petitioner and others juveniles in conflict with law as they were under 18 years of age on the date of the incident. But their request to transfer the case to the Juvenile Justice Board was refused.

The court below accepted the date of birth of the petitioner to be July 16, 1975. He was found to be 17 years, 3 months and 2 days old on the date of the incident. On that date,  the petitioner was not a juvenile under the 1986 Act, but a juvenile in conflict with law under the 2000 Act.   Section 20 of the 2000 Act contains a special provision in respect of pending cases. As the case against the petitioner was pending on the date of commencement of the 2000 Act, he should be treated as a juvenile in conflict with law within the meaning of Sec.2(l) of the said Act.