LL.B. (Three Years) Sem 3 Law of Criminal Procedure Nov 2024 Question Paper with Solutions

The procedure has one aim. It is to bring the child back into society, not to punish him. So the child goes before a Juvenile Justice Board, not a criminal court. He is kept in an observation home, not a police lockup. And at the end, the Board passes orders of reform, not sentences.

1. Who is a child in conflict with law

A child is a person who has not completed eighteen years of age (section 2(12)). A child in conflict with law is a child who is alleged or found to have committed an offence (section 2(13)). He must not have completed eighteen years on the date of the offence.

So age is counted on the date of the offence. A boy who was seventeen when he stole, and is nineteen at the inquiry, is still a child in conflict with law.

The Act divides offences into three classes. The procedure changes with the class.

2. Best interest. Every decision must be based on the best interest of the child (principle (iv)).
3. Institutionalisation as a last resort. A child is placed in an institution only after reasonable inquiry, and only as a last step (principle (xii)).
4. Fresh start. Past records of the child under the Act should be erased, except in special cases (principle (xiv)).
5. Diversion. Measures for dealing with the child without judicial proceedings are to be promoted (principle (xv)).

The rest include dignity, participation, privacy and confidentiality, and natural justice.

3. The Juvenile Justice Board

Every district has a Juvenile Justice Board (section 4). It sits as a Bench of three.

1. A Metropolitan Magistrate or Judicial Magistrate of the First Class, called the Principal Magistrate, with at least three years' experience. He cannot be the Chief Judicial Magistrate or Chief Metropolitan Magistrate.
2. Two social workers, of whom at least one is a woman.

2. The probation officer, or if none is available, a Child Welfare Officer. He must prepare a social investigation report and submit it to the Board within two weeks.

The social investigation report tells the Board about the child's antecedents, family background and circumstances. The Board uses it at every later stage.

6. Bail as the rule: section 12

Section 12(1) applies notwithstanding anything in the Code. A person who is apparently a child, accused of a bailable or non-bailable offence, shall be released on bail, with or without surety. Or he may be placed under a probation officer or a fit person.

There are only three grounds to refuse bail (the proviso).

1. Release is likely to bring him into association with a known criminal.
2. Release would expose him to moral, physical or psychological danger.
3. Release would defeat the ends of justice.

The Board must record its reasons for refusing bail. A child refused bail goes to an observation home or place of safety, not to jail (section 12(3)).

4. Serious offences follow the procedure for trial of summons cases.
5. Heinous offences by a child below sixteen also follow the summons-case procedure. For a child above sixteen, section 15 applies.

8. The preliminary assessment: section 15

A child may have completed sixteen years and be accused of a heinous offence. The Board then shall make a preliminary assessment of three things (section 15(1)):

1. his mental and physical capacity to commit the offence;
2. his ability to understand its consequences; and
3. the circumstances in which he allegedly committed it.

The Board may take the help of experienced psychologists, psycho-social workers or other experts. The Explanation says the assessment is not a trial. It only assesses capacity.

The assessment leads to one of two results.

1. The Board keeps the case and disposes of it itself, following the summons-case procedure (section 15(2)). This order is appealable under section 101(2).

6. release him on probation under a fit facility, for up to three years; or
7. send him to a special home for up to three years, for education, skill training, counselling and therapy.

The Board may add further orders (section 18(2)). The child may be told to attend school, vocational training or a therapeutic centre. He may be kept away from a place, or sent for de-addiction.

10. The Children's Court: section 19

The Children's Court receives the preliminary assessment and decides again (section 19(1)).

1. If it finds a need for trial as an adult, it tries him under the Code. It must still consider his special needs, a fair trial and a child-friendly atmosphere.
2. If it finds no such need, it holds an inquiry as a Board and passes orders under section 18.

Its final order must include an individual care plan (section 19(2)). A child found in conflict with law stays in a place of safety till twenty-one, with reformative services. Only then is he moved to jail (section 19(3)).

11. The protections that apply throughout

12. The leading cases

Pratap Singh v. State of Jharkhand, (2005) 3 SCC 551. The question was the relevant date for deciding juvenility. Was it the date of the offence or the date of production before the court? A Constitution Bench held that juvenility is decided by the date of the offence. This is why section 2(13) now speaks of age "on the date of commission of such offence". A person who has since turned eighteen keeps the Act's protection.

Shilpa Mittal v. State (NCT of Delhi), (2020) 2 SCC 787. A boy above sixteen was accused of an offence under section 304 of the Penal Code. It carried up to ten years or life, but no minimum sentence. The Board treated it as heinous and began a preliminary assessment. The Supreme Court held that an offence with no minimum of seven years is not a heinous offence under section 2(33). So no transfer for adult trial could be ordered. The Court called such offences a fourth category the Act had missed. It directed that they be treated as serious offences until Parliament acted. Parliament did, by adding clause (b) to section 2(54) in 2021.

2. Delay. Boards often lack members and sit rarely. Many inquiries run past the four-month limit, which defeats a child's right to a quick end.
3. The assessment itself. Capacity to commit an offence is hard to measure. Without trained experts, it risks becoming a formality. Barun Chandra Thakur was a response to this.

Conclusion

Conclusion. The JJ Act takes a child in conflict with law out of the ordinary criminal process. He is produced before a Juvenile Justice Board within twenty-four hours, and never kept in a lockup or jail. Bail is the rule, and the inquiry must end within four months, extendable by two. Only a child of sixteen or more may be sent for trial as an adult. Even then, the offence must be heinous, with a minimum of seven years. Even then, he cannot be sentenced to death or to life without release, and stays in a place of safety till twenty-one. The procedure aims at reform and a fresh start, not at punishment.