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Retributive injustice or reformatory justice?
Highlights
True, December 16,2012 was the darkest day when Nirbhaya was gang raped most brutally and the nation unanimously declared juveniles/ children between the age group of 16-18 ‘ most dangerous to the safety of women and bayed for the blood of the most brutal rapist .
True, December 16,2012 was the darkest day when Nirbhaya was gang raped most brutally and the nation unanimously declared juveniles/ children between the age group of 16-18 ‘ most dangerous to the safety of women and bayed for the blood of the most brutal rapist .
Some feminist activists even blasted the protective approach of the juvenile justice saying that it further licensed the juveniles to commit crimes in the absence of deterrence.
The opponents of juvenile criminals argue that the convict should not be released from institutional care until his psychological transformation makes him fir for social reintegration and rehabilitation. While replying to the debate on the bill, Maneka Gandhi, Minister of Women and Child development described juvenile crime as the fastest rising segment of crime and said ‘’the justice Board will decide whether the crime committed was ‘’childlike ‘’ or whether it was committed in ‘’an adult frame of mind.’’ She also pronounced the juvenile convict guilty of being radicalized due to his association with the Kashmiri terrorists on the premises of the jail.
She discounted the theory that poverty alone makes some children turn criminals and even cited the instance of a rich country like Sweden facing a high number of rape cases. Obviously mindful of the media hype,CPM leader Sitaram Yechury decried ‘’the haste’’ with which the law was amended and suggested that it be sent to a select committee. It is also rumoured that that the said rapist may be held back by invoking the National Security Act.
At the same time, we need to listen to certain voices opposing the new bill. They argue that it is the adults more than the juveniles that commit rapes.
They support their contention that in 2014,adults committed 48193 rapes in comparison to 1989 rapes by the juveniles. They cite the observations of Justice Verma committee that the age of juveniles ought not to be reduced to 16 years. The learned jurist rejected both death penalty and sending juveniles into the adult courts and jails. The Justice Verma Committee ,however appreciated the degree of maturity displayed by all the women’s organizations, the academics and a large body of thinking people who have viewed this incident both in the criminological as well as societal perspective.
Some of the champions juvenile justice even opine that sexual ability does not signify ‘’ maturity’’ of the mind. They contend that ‘’the frontal cortex of the brain which controls the ability to plan, take decisions, correctly assess risks and set long term goals is not fully developed and such being the case, young persons should not be treated as adults.’’ Further, it is also pointed out that a ‘lone case’ like the Nibhaya does not represent all juvenile crimes and that it is just a case of the State ‘’ covering up its failures in rehabilitating the juveniles in conflict with law.
Human Rights activists opine that ‘’a justice –welfare law should not turn into a punishing and retributive criminal act. They argue that the government should rather address such root causes as socio-economic disparities, dysfunctional families and domestic violence than get carried away by the hysteria whipped up by the main-stream media and the social media.
It is also said that juvenile delinquency has not assumed endemic proportions to necessitate a stringent Juvenile Justice Amendment Bill. Human Rights activists even caution the law-enforcing authorities to realize how TADA and POTA ,Dowry harassment cases and the Act to prevent atrocities on Scheduled Castes have often been misused to settle personal scores and raise the question whether ‘’we need to treat the juvenile as an adult offender to be punished or as a juvenile delinquent to be reformed and rehabilitated.
The apprehensions of juvenile criminals being ‘’ let loose’’ after their stay in a reformatory house are as frightening as their stay in the juvenile Homes as these (Homes) are said to be ‘’India’s Hell-Holes where the inmates are allegedly subjected to sexual assaults and exploitation, torture and ill-treatment.’’ The Asian Centre for Human Rights in its report 2013 titled ‘ India’s Hell Holes; Child Sexual Assault in Juvenile Justice Homes’ confirmed 39 cases of repeated sexual assault on children’
By: SM Kompella
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