SALIL BALI Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Seven Writ Petitions and one Transferred Case have been taken up together for consideration in view of the commonality of the grounds and reliefs prayed for therein. While in Writ Petition (C) No. 14 of 2013, Saurabh Prakash Vs. Union of India, and Writ Petition (C) No. 90 of 2013, Vinay K. Sharma Vs. Union of India, a common prayer has been made for declaration of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000, as ultra vires the Constitution, in Writ Petition (C) No. 10 of 2013, Salil Bali Vs. Union of India, Writ Petition (C) No. 85 of 2013, Krishna Deo Prasad Vs. Union of India, Writ Petition (C) No. 42 of 2013, Kamal Kumar Pandey & Sukumar Vs. Union of India and Writ Petition (C) No. 182 of 2013, Hema Sahu Vs. Union of India, a common prayer has inter alia been made to strike down the provisions of Section 2(k) and (l) of the above Act, along with a prayer to bring the said Act in conformity with the provisions of the Constitution and to direct the Respondent No. 1 to take steps to make changes in the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000, to bring it in line with the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for administration of juvenile justice. In addition to the above, in Writ Petition (Crl.) No. 6 of 2013, Shilpa Arora Sharma Vs. Union of India, a prayer has inter alia been made to appoint a panel of criminal psychologists to determine through clinical methods whether the juvenile is involved in the Delhi gang rape on 16.12.2012. Yet, another relief which has been prayed for in common during the oral submissions made on behalf of the Petitioners was that in offences like rape and murder, juveniles should be tried under the normal law and not under the aforesaid Act and protection granted to persons up to the age of 18 years under the aforesaid Act may be removed and that the investigating agency should be permitted to keep the record of the juvenile offenders to take preventive measures to enable them to detect repeat offenders and to bring them to justice. Furthermore, prayers have also been made in Writ Petition (Crl.) No. 6 of 2013 and Writ Petition (C) No. 85 of 2013, which are personal to the juvenile accused in the Delhi gang rape case of 16.12.2012, not to release him and to keep him in custody or any place of strict detention, after he was found to be a mentally abnormal psychic person and that proper and detailed investigation be conducted by the CBI to ascertain his correct age by examining his school documents and other records and to further declare that prohibition in Section 21 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000, be declared unconstitutional.

(2.) In most of the matters, the Writ Petitioners appeared in-person, in support of their individual cases.

(3.) Writ Petition (C) No.10 of 2013, filed by Shri Salil Bali, was taken up as the first matter in the bunch. The Petitioner appearing in-person urged that it was necessary for the provisions of Section 2(k), 2(l) and 15 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000, to be reconsidered in the light of the spurt in criminal offences being committed by persons within the range of 16 to 18 years, such as the gang rape of a young woman inside a moving vehicle on 16th December, 2012, wherein along with others, a juvenile, who had attained the age of 171/2 years, was being tried separately under the provisions of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000.