Juvenile Justice

In one line

From an Act of 1850 that let a magistrate apprentice a destitute child, to an Act of 2015 that lets a child of sixteen be tried as an adult for a heinous offence.

In the wording a student can write in an exam: juvenile justice in India begins with the Apprentices Act 1850, under which a magistrate could bind a destitute child as an apprentice, and runs through the Reformatory Schools Act 1897, the provincial Children Acts from 1920, the Children Act 1960 for the Union Territories, the Juvenile Justice Act 1986, which made the law uniform, and the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2000, which followed India's accession to the Convention on the Rights of the Child and raised the age for a boy from sixteen to EIGHTEEN. The Act of 2015 replaced it. Its sixteen GENERAL PRINCIPLES are in section 3; the Juvenile Justice Board is in section 4; the inquiry in section 14; the PRELIMINARY ASSESSMENT for a heinous offence alleged against a child of sixteen or above in section 15; the orders the Board may pass in section 18; the powers of the Children's Court in section 19; and the bar on a sentence of death or life imprisonment without the possibility of release in section 21.

The evolution

Section 1 first, because the Act's own reach is examinable. Short title, extent, commencement and application: the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2015, extending to the whole of India, in force from 15 January 2016, and applying to all matters concerning children in need of care and protection and children in conflict with law, including apprehension, detention, prosecution, penalty or imprisonment, rehabilitation and social re-integration.

The Apprentices Act 1850. A magistrate could bind a destitute or petty-offending child between ten and eighteen as an apprentice to a master. The child was an object to be disposed of.

The Reformatory Schools Act 1897. A youthful offender under fifteen sentenced to transportation or imprisonment could be sent to a reformatory school instead, which is the first separation of a child from the adult prison.

The provincial Children Acts, from the Madras Children Act 1920 onwards, which created juvenile courts and separate institutions in the provinces that enacted them, so the law differed from province to province.

The Children Act 1960, for the Union Territories, prohibiting imprisonment of a child in any circumstances and creating Child Welfare Boards and children's courts.

The Juvenile Justice Act 1986, the first uniform central law, defining a juvenile as a boy under SIXTEEN and a girl under EIGHTEEN, and distinguishing a "delinquent juvenile" from a "neglected juvenile".

The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2000, enacted after India's accession to the Convention in 1992 and following the Beijing Rules. It set the age at EIGHTEEN for both sexes, replaced "delinquent" and "neglected" with CHILD IN CONFLICT WITH LAW and CHILD IN NEED OF CARE AND PROTECTION, and created the Juvenile Justice Board and the Child Welfare Committee.