Juvenile Justice Act passed by the State law making body in 2013 is essentially based on the assumption that some under-aged youth get carried away by emotions leading to committing acts that are categorized as crime in the judicial lexicon. As the underage or juvenile are ignorant about the criminal nature of their act, they become casual victims of ignorance of law. Apart from this, the law makers have taken into account the possibility of unusually indiscreet and offensive atmosphere in which the family of the affected juvenile brings him up. Its psychological impact on the youth in making causes aberrations in his mental function. These aberrations need to be treated and not just punished. Such vital considerations besides some more were before the lawmakers when the Juvenile Justice Act was passed.
However, just passing the Act in this context cannot be called the complete action or process that would help in controlling the social problem. The law has to be implemented which in technical terminology is called giving teeth to the law. Otherwise it remains a decorative piece of obsolete compendium of laws that are removed and made dysfunctional with the passage of time. Sometime back a PIL was filed in the Apex Court demanding directions to ensure that the provisions of the Act were rightly and efficiently brought into force. The Supreme Court advised the appellant to approach the State High Court, which she did. In its recent hearing the Division Bench of the High Court desired the Government to appraise it of what was the status of establishment of Juvenile Justice Boards in all districts of the State and appointment of 22 Judicial Magistrates for Justice Juvenile Boards on priority basis. The Counsel for the State said that the Government was scheduled to hold an important high level meeting on 27th September under the chairmanship of the Chief Secretary in which a decision on filling of these posts would be taken.
However, the point we would like to make in this connection is that it is after a lapse of almost two and a half years and repeated directions by the court, that the Government has constituted the Selection-cum-Oversight Committee for Juveniles in the State which is yet to be made functional. Four years have passed when the Act was passed and yet the mandatory clauses of the Act have remained elusive. This mandatory clause speaks about constitution of Justice Juvenile Boards (JJBs) and appointment of 22 Judicial Magistrates. All this has remained in limbo until now. The importance of Juvenile Justice Act will be understood from the fact that Judiciary recently organized a round table conference on implementation of Juvenile Justice Act -2013 in Srinagar which was inaugurated by Justice Madan B Lokur, Supreme Court Judge. The conference was jointly organized by JJ Committee of Supreme Court of India and JJ Committee of J&K High Court. A significant and highly relevant aspect of JJ Act that was raised during the discussion was that for past two decades and more the youth of J&K have been living under extraordinary tension and mental pressure stung enough to disrupt normal functioning of a person. More often than not under the impact of this pressure and its related aspects juveniles were led astray from the path of reason and normal thinking and performed acts that are cognizable under criminal code. In such cases, application of psychological methods and approaches are more rewarding than resorting to punitive measures. This explains the importance and relevance of JJ Boards in bringing relief to a large section of our youth. We hope that the committee will take the final call that would bring relief and rehabilitation of the juvenile under radar.
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