Delhi HC closes over 1,000 cases petty crimes involving kids

On Wednesday, a bench of justices Siddharth Mridul and Anup Jairam Bhambhani gave two weeks to the Juvenile Justice Board to pass a formal order in each of the cases, and directed that the children “be released immediately without waiting” for the formal orders.

The Delhi high court has closed 1,108 cases of petty crimes allegedly committed by juveniles and ordered their immediate release, noting that enquiry in the cases has been pending or inconclusive for over a year.

During the hearing, DCPCR told the court that a total of 1,108 such cases were pending for over a year. (HT Archive)

On Wednesday, a bench of justices Siddharth Mridul and Anup Jairam Bhambhani gave two weeks to the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) to pass a formal order in each of the cases, and directed that the children “be released immediately without waiting” for the formal orders.

Petty crimes under Juvenile Justice (JJ) Act are defined as those which entail a maximum imprisonment up to three years. These include offences such as assault, theft, forgery etc.

Noting that the pendency of petty offences involving children has increased by 44% in the last six months, the court, in its 15-page order, said, “In all cases alleging petty offences against children/juveniles, where the inquiry has been pending and remains inconclusive for longer than 1 year, regardless of whether the subject child/juvenile has been produced before the JJB, all such inquiries shall stand terminated with immediate effect…”

The order comes while hearing a criminal reference, concerning the circumstances when a child in conflict with law also happens to be a child in need for care and protection, by the principal magistrate of the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB)-2, Delhi Gate. The criminal reference was tagged with a petition filed through the NGO Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA). Appearing for BBA, advocate Prabhsahay Kaur highlighted the pendency of petty crimes at JJBs.

The DCPCR had first in March, recommended the release of the children under section 14 of the JJ Act which mandates that the inquiry pertaining to petty offences against a child in conflict with law shall stand terminated if it remains inconclusive after four months, which can be extended by two more months for valid reasons.

During the hearing, DCPCR told the court that a total of 1,108 such cases were pending for over a year as on June 30, and 795 cases were pending for a period between 6 months and a year.

Anu Grover Baliga, secretary of the Delhi State Legal Services Authority, had informed the court that cases remain pending before JJBs for over six months as determining the age of the juvenile takes substantial time.

“Worse still...by reason of the truncated functioning of courts resulting from the prevailing Covid-19 pandemic, juveniles were not being produced before the JJBs at all... and, since it was understood that the time of four months stipulated in section 14 would begin to run only after the date of first production of the child before the JJB, hundreds of matters relating even to petty offences have been languishing at various stages...,” the bench noted in its order.

“...we direct that in consonance with the spirit of Section 10, the child must be so produced before the JJB...within a period of 24 hours of the child becoming subject of processes under the JJ Act,” the court said.

The court said even though most of the children are not “apprehended” by the police, or are handed over to their parents immediately if apprehended, the pendency of the case is “stigmatic and impacts the dignity of the child”.

“Therefore, this situation must not be allowed to continue...,” said the court.