Tuesday Conference

V o l. 0 1
I s s ue 31

Theology e-weekly

To make humanity united in worshipping God

Give Them a Second

Chance

Our Heavenly Patron

Dear Father,
The Rajya Sabha on Dec 22nd

passed the long-awaited

Juvenile Justice Bill with an overwhelming majority. The JJ Bill

proposes to try the accused who are above 16 years of age
as an adult in the court of law. The bill, which was first
introduced

by

Women

and

Child

Development

Minister

Maneka Gandhi in August 2014, has already been passed in

Lok Sabha on 7 May, 2015 .
The 31st issue Give Them a Second Chance of
Tuesday Conference discusses, can Juveniles be treated as
adults ?

Harsh punishment cannot be a deterrent

and this in turn could make the juveniles
hardcore criminals.

Every child, although he makes a mistake,

deserves a second chance.

Page - 02

The Immediate Context of the Bill

The brutal Delhi gang rape case has bought forth a new

We must

aspect of criminality that Indias justice system needs to address

not forget

urgently. One of the accused, the most aggressive is a minor of 17

that the
juvenile

years. Reports have shown that it was the minor who first lured
the unsuspecting victims into the bus and that he was the most
aggressive in the repeated rape of the victim.

accused in

The anger the country

felt in the aftermath of the

the case

Nirbhaya

had no

nightmare

understandable.

is

However,

family, and

amending the JJ Act is a

was on the

broader

issue

than

the

Nirbhaya case. The bill was

streets of

born out of the outrage

Delhi when

against the juvenile offender

he was only

in the December 16 gang rape case. There is a strong difference of

11.

opinion on a desired amendment in the JJ Act. Legal aid

volunteers, legal experts and reformers working for juvenile rights
oppose the amendment for bringing the age limit down from 18 to
17.
Tuesday Conference emphatically say no to all kinds
of

atrocities

against

women

and here we are not

supporting the acts committed by juveniles, rather we

focus on the reformative justice while treating them.

While there is no question that violent and dangerous youth need to

be confined for the safety of society, we should not support
provisions that treat children as though they are equal to adults in
their moral and cognitive development.

(US Bishop Conference)

Page - 03

Unsettling & Worrisome Aspect of the Bill

More juveniles will be incarcerated as

the Act promotes the adoption of a retributive
and punitive stance against them.

Adolescents alleged to have committed a

heinous crime will be confined to a place of
safety, which is essentially a place of
imprisonment.

Regrettably, the term place of safety may

turn out to be

terminological inexactitude,

simply because they don't currently exist and

thus these children may actually be housed in
a part of the adult prison.

At the age of 21 they would be transferred to

adult prison for the remainder of their
sentence, if the adult court deems that they
have not been suitably reformed and are not
likely to become contributing members of
society.

Most outrageous provision in the Bill

Section 7 states that even if a person over 21 years of age is caught for a heinous
offence he or she committed as a juvenile, they can be tried as an adult in the court of
law.
It simply means that a police officer will decide if he wants to treat a child as a
child or as an adult. In this case, the police officer can simply not arrest a child and
wait for him to turn 21 and then arrest him. This allows the police to totally bypass
Juvenile Justice Act.

Page - 04

You must hate the sin, not the sinner.

What we have done to the juveniles...

Lowering the
age limit is
not the
remedy. Its a
knee jerk
reaction. The
law isnt
meant to be
toyed with.
About onethird of the
countrys
population is
below 18

The juvenile homes failed to live up to these noble

principles in their functioning.

Studies found that the inmates of these homes were

housed in inhuman conditions.

Disturbing incidents of sexual abuse and assault,

exploitation, and torture were reported.

Perpetrators included caretakers, cooks, other Class IV

employees, directors, founders, senior inmates, etc.

These inmates were subjected to chronic physical and

sexual abuse often for years, bearing in silent anguish.

Sexual abuse and victimisation is a vicious cycle;

frequently get trapped in subsequent abusive relationships .
Thus,

institutions

dedicated

to

principles

of

rehabilitation, and reintegration of a juvenile turned into

homes of degradation and further despair. How are the
new places of safety likely to be any different?

years. Will
you put them
all in the jail?
Juvenile lawyer
A .K Asthana

There are children used in conflict to commit war crimes as early as

when they are 10. Does that mean you can bring a kid to court, try
the kid for first degree murder and crimes against humanity and send
the kid to gallows?

The Nerve of the Debate

Page - 05

Faizan

No concrete data to prove that

Mustafa,

VC

of

stiff punishment resulted in the lowering

National Academy of Legal Studies

of the crime rate anywhere in the world .

and

Crimes occur even in nations such as

unfortunate that we seem to be

Saudi Arabia which follow the policy of

playing women against children.

an eye- for-an-eye and tooth-for-a-tooth.

We are opposed to the law because

Therefore, what is required is a

vengeance seems to have become the

change in our outlook and not

focal point of our view of justice. It is

stringent punishment.

regressive because all studies show

Research:

It

is

very

a high rate of recidivism if you

Laws cannot be based on one

Such a legislation would put us

instance alone.

Laws cannot be made to appease to

political

on par with countries like Saudi

Arabia, Sudan and Yemen.

popular political sentiment.

Choosing

treat juveniles as adults.

expediency

over justice it is an inhuman idea

Lawyer Karuna Nandy: will be a

conceived by it.

hardening effect on young boys who

It is morally, legally, constitutionally,

have gone to an adult jail."

Having gone to an adult jail,

ethically and emotionally wrong to

there will not have a base to fall

treat children as adults.

It was a badly written law and the

back

on.

They will have strong

government was over-reacting to a

criminal networks. There will not be

handful of cases.

any reformative focus on the juvenile

Shashi Tharoor MP

justice system.

The govt has accepted its failure to

ensure rights to the children in this country.
The basic premise to enact such a law is public
anger over a recent crime pertaining to rape and
murder. But such

step

will

lead

to

retributive justice, not juvenile justice.

- P. Baburaj, a former member of the JJ Board.

Page - 06

Placing children in adult jails is a sign of

failure, not a solution. (US Bishops Conference)

Scientific studies do not support... this step

The United States of America has for some time adopted laws that allow
juveniles to be tried as adults. Research in this population now suggests that
alternatives other than incarceration are probably more beneficial in
the long run.

Studies by Aizer and Doyle (2013) have shown that juveniles who were
incarcerated had higher rates of recidivism and poorer educational
attainments than juveniles who were not detained in correctional institutions.

Aizer and Doyle (2013) have also reported that states in the US which
instituted community based alternatives to incarceration had less crime.

David Farrington (1977) reported that youth who were incarcerated

constructed a deviant self-image.

Brain studies the risk-taking tendency is really high during adolescence. It is

discovered by neuroscientists that prefrontal lobe which is responsible for
functions such as planning, reasoning, controlling the impulse, etc. develop
only after 25 years.

Legislation also falls foul of:

Article 14 of the Constitution that mandates equality before the law

Article 15(3) which permits only special legislation for children and not
against them.

Violates the article 20(1) of Indian Constitution for it is according higher

penalty to the same offence if the adult is apprehended after 21 years of age.

Violates of the norms of United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child
since it requires every child under 18 to be treated as equal.

Page - 07

These are the ones you are trying to punish...

than

If the government really does go ahead

reformed adults would be churned

with this amendment, what theyre really

out if such a law comes into

saying, is that they cannot even make an effort

existence. A majority of children in

to rehabilitate as few as 3304 children which

Hardened

conflict

with

criminals

law

come

from

illiterate and poor families.

is the number children arrested for rape and

murder in 2013.

Out of the 472 million children of

Adult time for adult crime

the country, only 1.2% have committed

may be a catchy phrase but it reflects a

crimes. And of these, only 2.17% had

poor understanding of criminal justice

committed murder and 3.5% had

principles. The blameworthiness of

committed rape. How can we pass a

children cannot be equated with that of

law that will jeopardise the other

adults, even when they commit the same

99.98% children in this country because

crime.

the government wishes to overreact to these handful of cases.

Instead give them education...

If you bring down the age of juvenile from below
18 to 16 just as an example, if another boy who
is 15 years and 10 months in age commits a
similar crime, what will you do? So age should
not be the restriction to define crime that
recommends punishment based on nature of
crime committed. - Sitaram Yechury

To be able to help people is a blessing, and feel blessed by helping

children grow blissfully. Failures are so daunting, and challenges are so intense,
that it leads to frustration quite often. But we needs to collect ourselves and start
from scratch after each fall, and this is where people around us look from us.
Vincentian Vidyabhavan, Aluva.