Apprehension and the Role of the Police

In one line

A child apprehended by the police goes at once to the special juvenile police unit or the child welfare police officer, must be produced before the Board within twenty four hours excluding journey time, and may in no case be put in a police lockup or a jail.

In the wording a student can write in an exam: by the proviso to section 10(1) of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, in no case shall a child alleged to be in conflict with law be placed in a police lockup or lodged in a jail.

Section 10, apprehension

Sub-section (1), three duties in one sentence.

One, custody. As soon as a child alleged to be in conflict with law is apprehended by the police, he shall be placed under the charge of the special juvenile police unit or the designated child welfare police officer.

Two, production. That officer shall produce the child before the Board without any loss of time but within a period of twenty four hours of apprehending the child, excluding the time necessary for the journey from the place where the child was apprehended to the Board.

Three, the prohibition. The proviso: "in no case, a child alleged to be in conflict with law shall be placed in a police lockup or lodged in a jail."

Sub-section (2). The State Government shall make rules for (i) the persons, including registered voluntary or non governmental organisations, through whom a child may be produced before the Board; and (ii) the manner in which he may be sent to an observation home or place of safety.

Reading sub-section (1) carefully

Note the word "apprehended", not "arrested". The Act avoids the vocabulary of arrest throughout, which is principle (viii) of section 3, non stigmatising semantics, in operation.

Note the two limbs of the time rule. "Without any loss of time" is the primary obligation; twenty four hours is the outer limit; and the journey time is excluded from the count.

Note who has custody in the meantime. The special juvenile police unit or the designated child welfare police officer, an office section 107 creates. An ordinary officer has no charge of the child.

And note that the proviso is absolute. No exception for want of an observation home, for the hour of the night or for the gravity of the allegation.

All three duties come from 2006. Section 9 of Act 33 of 2006 substituted section 10(1) of the 2000 Act in almost these words. The 2015 Act adds the child welfare police officer and the alternative destination of a place of safety in sub-section (2)(ii).