Delhi govt wants to try juvenile criminals as adults

To deal with the issue of underage gangs invloving in criminal activities, Delhi government has written to the Home Ministry that the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act should be amended in such a way that repeat offenders in the age group of 16-18 years can be tried on a par with adults. It also stated that there should be a provision for registering FIRs against such offenders.

The matter was first raised in a communication from the Lieutenant Governor Tejendra Khanna to the Home Ministry some time ago. The communications were recently referred to the Ministry of Women and Child Development and the ministry has undertaken a process to amend the JJ Act.

With Delhi government actively pursuing the matter, officials in the ministry said the amendments to the JJ Act are being formulated by a committee, to which all relevant documents have been referred.

In a letter earlier this month, Delhi's Principal Secretary (Home) Arvind Ray said the Home department should be apprised of any movement on the matter as it is being monitored by the LG.

Delhi has over the last few years grappled with a number of gangs like the 'burn-and-burgle' gang which had terrorised residents in their respective areas. Police claim they are helpless to act against them as the offenders are juveniles. Other gangs like the 'thak-thak' gang often use children for carrying out specific jobs as they know that if children are caught, they can get away easily after serving time in remand homes.

The L-G's letter quotes extensively from criminal laws in Western countries and points out that juveniles between 16-18 years constitute 64 per cent of children caught on the wrong side of law. The letter urged that juveniles should be "tried like adults in certain categories of cases. To begin with, it is suggested that some sort of assessment of criminality, blameworthiness and competence of juvenile offenders to stand trial should be made and suitably incorporated in the Juvenile Justice Act".

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