Juvenile Issue in India

Juvenile Issue in India

Recently Government of India has proposed a new amendment in the Juvenile Justice(Care and Protection of Children) Act 2000, which will allow Juvenile aged between 16 to 18 to be tried as adult if he is involved in heinous crime. Friends heinous crimes are Rape, Murder, Loot or Dacoity. As per the new amendments Juvenile Justice Board will have the power to assess whether the Juvenile (aged between 16 to 18) involved in the heinous crime acted as an adult or a child. For this the board will take the help of a psychologist and a social expert.

This is the proposed amendment. We will now look into the main provisions of the act, international situation and the whole issue related to the act.

India is the signatory to the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Child 1989, the U.N. Standard Minimum Rules for Administration of Juvenile Justice 1985 (Beijing Rules), U.N. Rules for Protection of Juveniles Deprived of their Liberty 1990. To fulfill all these obligations Government of India  passed Juvenile Justice Act 2000. According to U.N. and various other international texts, Juvenile, who is below the age of 18, lacks the physical and mental maturity to take responsibility of his/her crime and because their character is not fully developed, they should have the opportunity to be rehabilitated. Some of important provisions of Juvenile Justice Act are:

• There will be a Juvenile Justice Board Which will hear the cases involved juveniles.
• JJB must contain a metropolitan or judicial magistrate and two social workers, one of which will be a woman.
•  Magistrate must have the background in child psychology and child welfare.
• State is required to set up number of institutes to fulfill the requirements of Juveniles.
• State is required to set up observation homes or special homes in every district or group of districts for rehabilitation of Juvenile Children in conflict with the laws.
•  Police must handover the juvenile to special Juvenile Police Unit which will report to JJB with least delay.
• Bail is available to Juvenile in all cases unless JJB finds that release of juvenile will put him/her into any danger or influence of criminals.
• Exposure of Juvenile in Conflict with Law to the media is not permitted.

 According to Juvenile Justice act, the juvenile, who is involved in any crime, will not be subjected to adult justice system.There are some courses of actions like:

• He may be given advice or admonition
• He may be given Counseling
• He may be ordered to do community services
• He may be asked to pay certain fine
• At the most he may be sent to remand home for three years, not more than that.

It is interesting to know that after passing of the act the number of crimes done by Juveniles increase significantly. According to a report by National Crime Record Bureau titled "Crimes in India 2011", number of rapes done by Juvenile increase from from 399 in 2001 to 485 in 2002, to 858 in 2010 to 1149 in 2012. 

Current Issue in India:

The whole controversy regarding Juvenile started after December 2012 rape case(Nirbhaya and Damini and all that....), when we the people of India suddenly woke up from a deep sleep after thousands of rapes and demanded to government to change the laws and punish the juveniles involved in rape and also demanded the capital punishment for rape. Similarly the Supreme Court of India also asked government this year to make some amendments in Juvenile Justice Act so that no person can get away with heinous crimes.

Practices in other Countries:

• In many states of U.S.A., the case of Juvenile is automatically transfered to adult courts if he/she is involved in any heinous crime. They call it Get Though approach
• In U.K., juvenile cases are tried in Youth Court. But if Juvenile is involved in any heinous crime, then the case is transferred to Crown Court, which is similar to Session Court.

Whatever may be the act or proposed amendment or any international treaty, there should be a fine balance between the protection of rights of Juvenile and the justice to the victims of heinous crimes.

Jai Hind, Jai Bharat.

For any suggestion or demand, please contact us at risingyouthteam@gmail.com or you can contact our admin directly at pn.borse@gmail.com

Sources: Wiki, The Hindu, The Indian Express, DNA India.com, Advocatekhoj.com, prsindia.com.

AFSPA

AFSPA

Many of us have heard about AFSPA. We regularly listen about AFSPA in various tv channels and newspapers. Let us have some inside about this act.

The history of AFSPA or we can say "ARMED FORCES (SPECIAL POWERS) ACT 1958", dates back to India's independence. After the independence many princely states were merged with India (thanks to the persuasive skill of sardar vallabh bhai patel). The north east region was also merged to India. Naga people of Assam and Manipur opposed the merger of their area with India. They claimed that they are socially, culturally and racially different from Indians. They revolted and held a referendum declaring independence from India. They resorted to violence against state machinery. Rebellions under the leadership of Naga Nationalist Council set up a parallel government call Federal Government of Nagaland in 1956. Government of the state of Assam tried hard to control rebels, but failed and asked support from Government of India. After all parliament of India passed the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act 1958.

So this was the story of AFSPA. Now we will see the provisions of AFSPA.

Provisions:

The act confers on an officer, warrant officer or a non commissioned officer or any other person of equivalent rank in armed forces, the power to

• Fire upon any person or use force, causing even death to the person who is disregarding the orders against unlawful assembly.     
• Arrest  without warrant
• Enter and Search any premise
• Destroy any arms dumps
• Stop, Search and Seize any vehicle

The act provide legal immunity to the person of armed forces, as prosecution against the person of armed forces can not be initiated without the prior permission of central government.

This act was initially enacted in Assam and Manipur in 1958 and later covered whole north east.

It was in force in Punjab from 1985 to 1994. It is in force in Jammu and Kashmir since 1990.

This act comes into force only when an area of a state is declared disturbed and the power to declare an area disturbed is extended to central government by the act 7 of 1972.

Controversy:

It has been alleged that the AFSPA is used by armed forces for arbitrary killings, torture, cruelty and inhuman treatment.

After lot of agitations in Manipur, central government in 2005 appointed a committee under supreme court judge B.P. Jeevan Reddy to review the act. The committee submitted its report suggesting repealing the act. But supreme court of India has confirmed the validity of act by suggesting to use it more judiciously.   

Chhattisgarh Food Security Act: Ahead of Union Govt.

Chhattisgarh Food Security Act: Ahead of Union Govt.

The Raman Singh Govt has enacted the Chhattisgarh Food Security Act, 2012. It is a copy of Union Govt's "National Food Security Bill", which is under negotiations. Raman Singh govt. has done some intelligent amendments into the bill to make this copy ahead of the original union govt bill.

Now let see the comparison between these two.

Provisions of Original National Food Security Bill:

• It is a comprehensive scheme which covers all related schemes like: Antodaya Anna Yojana, Mid Day Meal Scheme, ICDS Program, Swadhar Yojana, Sarva Siksha Abhiyan and Janani Suraksha Yojana
• In this bill the food comprises: Wheat, Rice and Coarse Cereals. Which will be given at 7kg to per family member
• Demarcation of population is not by BPL or APL, but by Socio Economic Cast Census, which will divide population into General Category, Priority Sector and Neutral.
• Covers 75% households in rural area and 25% in urban area
• Also has provisions to convert Wasteland into Cultivable land..

Provisions under Chhattisgarh Food Security Act, 2012:

• This act divides populations under:  Antodaya households, Priority Households(BPL) and General households (APL)
• This act does not prescribe any percentage limit of beneficiaries like that in National Food Security Bill
• This act will provide 35 kg of food per month  
• Rs. 1/kg to Antodaya households, Rs.2/kg to BPL, and Rs. 15/Kg to APL
• 2kg of iodised salt will be provided free
• 2kg pulses at Rs.10/kg will be provided in Non-Schedule Areas
• 2kg Black Channa at Rs.5/kg in Scheduled Areas
• State Govt has defined Antodaya as all families of vulnerable social group like: tribal, widows or single women, terminally ill person, physically challenged, elderly headed household with no assured means of subsistence and person freed from bonded labor.
• Mandatory subsidized food grain for: Pregnant women, Lactating mothers, malnourished children, children between 6months to 14 years of age, student in hostels and ashrams
• Entitlement on household basis with family size of 4.47 in rural area and 4.79 in urban areas
• Excluded from benefits: 

1. All who pay income tax
2. Non-Schedule Areas: who own 4 hectare of irrigated land or 8 hectare of non-irrigated land
3. Urban Areas: Who have pucca house (Concrete Roof) with more than 1000 sq. ft. carpet size and pay property tax   

A very good act 1 step forward with union govt.