SELVI Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) One Selvi (the petitioner, hereafter) has come to this Court with a prayer that her son Udayalal (juvenile, hereafter) may be given the benefit of the humane compassion of law which prompted the Parliament to bring in exhaustive amendments to the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000 (for short the Act') by Act 33 of 2006 with effect from 22.8.2006. Her prayers can be summarised as follows:

(2.) Vital facts first. The juvenile - son of the petitioner, was born on 2/2/1973 as is evident from Ext.P2.- extract of the school admission register. As per the family register maintained by the Church authorities, date of birth of the juvenile is 20/11/72. The offence of murder committed by the juvenile took place on 30/3/1990. Go by the school admission register or the Church family register, the juvenile was below the age of 18 years on the date of occurrence. The juvenile faced trial and by judgment dated 31/ 3/1995 in S.C. No. 246/93, he was found guilty, convicted and sentenced under Sections 302 and 307 IPC to undergo imprisonment for life. The conviction was challenged and in an appeal preferred by the juvenile through jail authorities, a Division Bench of this Court by judgment dated 1/8/ 97 in Criminal Appeal No. 332/95 confirmed the conviction and sentence. As per the law, as it then stood, the son of the petitioner was not a juvenile/child entitled to any benefit he having crossed the age of 16 years on the date of commission of the offence. He was hence sent to prison and he is serving his sentence now.

(3.) It may not be of crucial relevance; but it deserves to be mentioned that while undergoing imprisonment, he had escaped from prison on 18/11/1996 for which he was proceeded against and convicted and sentenced to undergo simple imprisonment for a period of six months. After his escape from prison on 18/11/1996, he was recaptured after 1212 days on 15/12/2000. He is undergoing imprisonment now as a convict prisoner.