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| Extend new Juvenile Justice Act to JK' | | | Early Times Report
Jammu, June 25: Human rights defenders have urged the state government to take measures during the coming Assembly Session to extend Juvenile Justice Act 2000 to the state. The state continues to be governed by older version of the legislation that was enacted in 1986 and was extended to the state in 1987. The law came up for discussion when Amnesty international released its report on Public Safety Act titled `A lawless law' early this year.
The older version of the law was enacted in India in 1986. The state of Jammu Kashmir extended the law in 1987. However, after taking into consideration the provisions of similar legislations of various countries, the law was amended. Under the amended law a person below the age of eighteen is a minor. In rest of India a boy of eighteen is a minor. But the Jammu Kashmir legislators believe the mental and physical faculties of boys develop fully by the time they complete sixteen years of their lives. So in Jammu Kashmir anybody who is above sixteen is not a minor.
The legislation evoked severe criticism especially when the Home Secretary GK Pillai admitted detention of minors under Public Safety Act (PSA) during his interaction with Amnesty International team on March 17 this year. However, he expressed his helplessness. "The Jammu Kashmir legislators have failed to extend the new version of Jammu Kashmir Juvenile Justice Act to the state", he told the members.
The older version of the Juvenile Justice Act empowers the state to detain a boy of above sixteen and below eighteen under Public Safety Act (PSA). The Amnesty International campaigned for release of a Anantnag boy who was detained under PSA. The police issued a statement this evening stating that the boy was not a minor. "Faizan was on police remand and judicial remand for about 20 days respectively when two separate bail applications were moved by his parents before the Sessions Judge Anantnag and Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) Anantnag. In both the courts, the relations of Faizan had never claimed that he was underage", the police said.
The matter was raised with the Chief Minister who ordered the police to constitute a medical board to ascertain the age of the detained boy. Accordingly a consisting of three medical officers including a Radiologist was constituted at Government Medical College, Jammu to conduct the medical test. The board examined Faizan on March 23.
The board in its findings fixed Faizan's age between 17- 18 years. "The age of the accused is more than 17 years which do not fall anyway under the category of "underage", police said.
Faizan was ultimately released. The Chief Minister's statement generated hopes of replacement of the older version of the law. The next session of the Legislative Assembly shall begin shortly. Will the esteemed legislators take the much needed measures? |
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