Tweet Supreme Court: In an appeal challenging judgment passed by Madras on 15-04-2021 dismissing criminal appeal under Section 374(2) of the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 (‘CrPC’) to affirm conviction and sentence awarded by Trial Court for offences under Sections 363, 342 and 302 read with Section 201 of the Penal Code, 1860 (‘IPC’) and Section 6 of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (‘POCSO Act’), the Division Bench of BR Gavai and Sandeep Mehta, JJ. allowed the appeal and reversed his conviction due to non-adherence with the procedural mandate under the Juvenile Justice ..read more

Tweet Delhi High Court: A petition was filed by a Constable/GD in the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), served for nearly 17 years with an exemplary record seeking to set aside of memorandum dated 09-08-2023 whereby a departmental inquiry has been initiated against him. A division bench of Sanjeev Sachdeva and Manoj Jain, JJ., held that the petitioner’s failure to disclose the previous involvement in the criminal case was justified under the Juvenile Justice Act, 2000, thus, the Court set aside the impugned Memorandum dated 09-08-2023 that initiated the inquiry against the petitioner. The ..read more

Tweet Allahabad High Court: In a suo motu public interest litigation concerning the shortcomings and deficiencies in the running of child care institutions, the division bench of Pritinker Diwaker and Ajay Bhanot, JJ. has pointed out the shortcomings which need urgent attention and issued appropriate directions. Further, it directed the Principal Secretary, Women and Child Development Department, Government of U.P. to file a personal affidavit on 06-11-2023. The Principal Secretary was also directed to disclose the number of observation homes of different categories whether run by the Governm ..read more

Tweet Delhi High Court: This Revision Petition was filed under Section 401 of the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 (‘CrPC’) to impugn the order of July 2016 passed by the trial court, wherein the trial court found no authentic document on record which could give clear indication about actual date of birth of the prosecutrix, which was alleged to be about 16 years of age. Sudhir Kumar Jain, J.*, held that the trial court had rightly relied upon the Aadhaar card to ascertain the age of prosecutrix as per mandate of Section 94 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 (‘JJ ..read more

Tweet Madras High Court: Pursuant to the administrative order of the Acting Chief Justice a division bench was constituted to monitor the implementation of provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (‘POCSO’) Act and Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) Act, 2015 on the judicial side. The division bench of N. Anand Venkatesh* and Sunder Mohan, JJ. has directed the Director General of Police (‘DGP’) to identify cases involving consensual relationship from among the 1274 pending cases. Further, it discontinued the two-finger test and the archaic potency test. The Court took ..read more

Tweet Bombay High Court: In an application challenging the judgment and order dated 13-01-2020 passed by the Additional Sessions Judge dismissing appeal against the order passed by the Juvenile Justice Board (‘JJB’) allowing trial of juveniles in conflict with law as adults in a heinous crime, G.A. Sanap, J. quashed and set aside the said order while eyeing at procedural lapses on part of the Juvenile Justice Board during inquiry under Section 15 of Juvenile Justice Act, 2015. The matter relates to offences under Sections 376(3), 376-DA, 376(2)(j)(n), 354-D, 504, 506 read with Section 34 of t ..read more

Tweet Madhya Pradesh High Court | Vivek Agarwal*, J., held that the Aadhaar Card being a unique identification card issued by the Indian Government, cannot be relied upon to determine the age of a prosecutrix in cases under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) Rules, 2012. In the instant matter, the Special Judge (POCSO), District Jabalpur vide order dated 08-04-2023, rejected the application filed by the accused seeking submission of original Aadhaar card as a proof of date of birth of the prosecutrix and photocopy of which was already available on record. Aggrieved by the impugned ord ..read more

Tweet     Bombay High Court: In a case relating to an article published by Mid-Day, pursuant to the order of the instant Court dated 20-10-2022 wherein the names of the parties as well as the photos of the child in conflict with law, was published, a Division Bench of Revati Mohite Dere and Prithviraj K. Chavan, J., issued show cause notice to the scribe of the said article i.e., Shirish Vaktania, the Publisher and Editor of Mid-Day, as to why suo-motu action should not be initiated against them. Counsel for respondent 3 submitted that the publication of the names of the parties as ..read more

Tweet Supreme Court: In the Kathua Rape and murder case where one of the accused was found to be taking the statutory shelter under the guise of being a minor, the bench of Ajay Rastogi and JB Pardiwala*, JJ observed that it was gathering an impression that the leniency with which the juveniles are dealt with in the name of goal of reformation is making them more and more emboldened in indulging in such heinous crimes. Observing that the rising rate of juvenile delinquency in India is a matter of concern and requires immediate attention, the Court said that “There is a school of thought, exis ..read more

Tweet Supreme Court: In the 2018 horrific case relating to the abduction, rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl in Kathua District of J&K by six men and one accused claiming to be a juvenile at the time of the incident, the bench of Ajay Rastogi and JB Pardiwala*, JJ has held that the respondent accused was not a juvenile at the time of commission of the offence and should be tried the way other co-accused were tried in accordance with the law. Stating that law has to take its own course and that the Court was only deciding the issue of juvenility in the case at hand, it was clarified ..read more