Kids on trial await justice for years

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Juvenile delinquents in the country face hugely unfriendly environment when the authorities concerned handle their cases, which invariably drag on for years.

For instance, the case of a juvenile accused in a criminal case in Salem is pending for 20 years and has been adjourned over 70 times, a recent Unicef-sponsored study by the Madras university has found.

In this context, the humanist pronouncement from Justice S. Nagamuthu of the Madras high court on Monday that the juvenile justice boards (JJBs) must have magistrates with “special knowledge or training in child psychology or child welfare” must provide great relief to the children facing cases for various reasons, often unjustified.

Hearing the case of Chennai boy Idukan (name changed) accused of stabbing his teacher in the classroom this February, Justice Nagamuthu quashed the JJB proceedings because the magistrate on the board was found not suitable.

“I find that the very same error had occurred in the appointment of principal magistrate to each and every juvenile justice board in the state”, the kind judge has said.

His order created ripples among the JJB members and child rights experts. On condition of anonymity, a JJB member said, “Magistrates nominated to the JJBs should be given special training through the judicial academy.

At present, magistrates in all the eight JJBs in TN work in other courts and also handle JJB cases when required. There must be proper co-ordination among the members, the magistrate and the police to protect the interests of the child.”

Child rights activist A. Devaneyan said there were many discrepancies in the functioning of the JJBs. “Hundreds of cases are pending.

Adjournments are served several times and children are not given time to present their version. There is lack of infrastructure and an unfriendly environment prevails in these forums,” he said.

Kid thief told to teach English

A mischievous teenager was recently brought before the juvenile justice board (JJB) in the city, charged with throwing acid on his neighbour’s dog to settle scores with him.

The board members decided to teach the kid a lesson without having to lock him up a correction home. They told him he must feed stray dogs in his locality for a month.

“Just as we hoped, the boy came back reformed, full of remorse for his cruel act. He said he now loved dogs”, recalled K. Alagappan, a former JJB member.

In another case, the city police registered a minor theft case against an Anglo-Indian teenager. “When we interacted with the boy, we had been driven to crime by force of circumstances.

He was not a regular offender. Since he spoke good English, we got him to teach English prose and poetry to the slow learners at the government boys’ (correction) home,” he said.

These are the some of the laudable judgments recently given by the Chennai JJB resorting to ‘persuasive’ methods such as prescribing community service to reform the juvenile accused.

“There is a provision in the JJ Act to ask the child to do social service. This method worked well and we could see many juveniles improve their abilities while also helping the others,” said Mr. Alagappan, who has been working with children for many years.

He said when the juvenile delinquents are given opportunities to reform and learn, they utilize the chance and come up in life.

Juvenile lawbreakers housed at the government Chengalput home are trained in cellphone repair, two-wheeler mechanism apart from regular schooling.

2,000 cases still pending in state

In over 30 per cent of the cases presented before them, the juvenile justice boards (JJBs) in Tamil Nadu took more than 600 days for delivering the verdicts, recent Unicef-sponsored study by the criminology department of the Madras university has found.

It said nearly 2,000 cases are pending across the state and about 900 of them are in the final stages of disposal.

A shocking fact was that the treatment meted out to these ‘children in conflict with law’ has often been very bad, despite the laws relating to children insisting that juvenile delinquents are entitled to care and protection.

“In Tamil Nadu there exists a justice delivery system for children in conflict with law. However, there seems to be a gap in the procedures followed by various institutions of the system, including the JJB and the provisions of the law,” said the report from a team of professors and students who studied several case records, met officials and the juveniles in trouble.

Prof.M.Srinivasan and his team took help from the Tata institute of social sciences, Mumbai and analysed the justice delivery system.

Their report lamented that there are cases pending for decades. In most cases, the parents moved the bail applications and no help came from the free legal-aid lawyers.

And as for the lack of infrastructure, the team found that basic needs such as drinking water, toilets and record rooms were sparse in many JJBs.

Juvenile justice Pending Pending No. Of
boards in TN FIRs Cases Cases Pending taken
Chennai 795 170 170
Cuddalore 370 98 82
Tanjavur 278 122 122
Madurai 736 1167 90
Tirunelveli 489 742 64
Coimbatore 399 344 172
Salem 309 284 139
Trichy 167 202 86
Total 3543 3129 925
Source: study by the Madras university criminology department, 2012.

Reasons for the adjournments of cases

REASON PERCENTAGE OF CASES
ADJOURNED
For the want of filing
chargesheet by the police 38.7 %
Adjourned for the want of
protection officer's report 23.5%
Adjourned for the want of
presence of witness 22.3%
Source: study by the Madras university
criminology department, 2012.