ATUL KUMAR Vs. STATE OF HARYANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS petition filed under Section 53 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000 (for brevity, 'the Act') is directed against the order dated 12.6.2003 passed by the Additional Sessions Judge, Fatehabad, declining the application of the petitioners. The petitioners who are "juvenile in conflict with law", within the meaning of Section 2(1) of the Act are facing allegations in case F.I.R. No. 99 dated 29.3.2003, under Sections 302/323/147/149 of the Indian Penal Code, registered at P.S. City Tohana. The allegations in the F.I.R. are as under :-

(2.) THE petitioners filed an application under Section 12 of the Act before the Duty Magistrate who dismissed the same on 26.4.2003 holding that the petitioners do not deserve the concession of bail because the charges against them were serious and they were on the verge of attaining majority on the date of commission of crime i.e. 29.3.2003. Feeling aggrieved, the petitioner filed an appeal under Section 52 of the Act before the Additional Sessions Judge, Fatehabad and their appeal was also dismissed. The operative part of the order of learned Additional Sessions Judge reads as under :-

(3.) Mr. D.S. Bail, learned senior counsel has argued that under Section 12 of the Act, a "juvenile in conflict with law" is entitled to bail unless there is evidence showing that the release of the juvenile on bail is likely to bring him in association with any known criminal or expose him to moral, physical or psychological danger or that his release would defeat the ends of justice. The learned counsel has pointed out that the aforementioned ground has to be substantiated by producing some evidence on record and it cannot be the ipse dixit of the prosecution. In support of his submission, the learned counsel has placed reliance on three judgments namely; Sahabuddin @ Shabboo v. State of Uttar Pradesh, 2003(1) RCR(Criminal) 498, Sanjeev Kumar v. State of Haryana, 2003(1) RCR(Criminal) 1 and Gopi Nath Ghosh v. State of W.B., 1984(1) RCR(Criminal) 444 (SC) : AIR 1984 SC 237.