What is Juvenile Justice Act? Recent amendments to the Act explained

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The Union Cabinet has made some amendments to the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2015. This move is said to be imparting clarity and also would try to make the bureaucrats more responsible while implementing laws. 

Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children Act) 2015: Details of the Amendment

1. The Juvenile Justice Care and Protection of Children Act was introduced in 2015. It replaced the Juvenile Delinquency Law and the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children Act).The major provision included allowing trial of juveniles charged with crimes belonging to the age group of 16-18 years as adults. 
2. The Juvenile Justice Board would determine the nature of crime and whether the juveniles would be tried as a minor or an adult. 
3. The next major change was in regard to bringing a universally accepted adoption law instead of the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act 1956 and Guardians of the Ward Act 1890.
4. The act has intended to streamline the adoption issue and make the lives of the orphans easier. 

Heinous Crime Provisions:

The heinous crimes have a minimum sentence of 7 years as per the law. In Juvenile Justice Act the provision has been provided to try the children aged 16-18 years as adults, who have performed heinous crimes and the sentence would be similar in strength for both juveniles and adults in such cases. 

Recent changes made by the Cabinet: 

The amendment passed by the Union Cabinet this week has included for the first time the category of “serious crimes”. It has thus been tried to differentiate it from heinous crimes, while retaining heinous crimes. Both heinous and serious crimes have also been clarified for the first time, removing any ambiguity.

The act has clarified that in case a juvenile is tried as an adult, he/ she may be sentenced for a maximum of 7 years or more but also a minimum of 7 years at the same time. 

Significance of the amendments to the Act:

1. It has been made sure that the children are protected and kept out of the adult justice system as much as possible. 
2. Currently, with no such mention of minimum sentence, the Juveniles between ages of 16-18 year could be treated as adults for a crime for possession of illegal substances or serious crimes too. Now this has been cleared. 

Power of the District Magistrate:

1. After the changes, the district magistrates along with the additional district magistrates would monitor the functioning of various agencies like Child Welfare Committees, the Juvenile Justice Boards, the District Child Protection Units and the Special Juvenile Protection Units would monitor the functioning of the Act in various districts. 
2. “If children have been reunited with their parents or are found dead, that data too will be under the district magistrate, which will be given to the state government for proper evaluation,” Smriti Irani informed. 
3. DMs and ADMs have also been empowered to decide on adoption cases. Also appeals can be done at the divisional commissioner level now.  

4. The NCPCR report had found that not a single Child Care Institution (CCI) in India was in 100 percent compliance to the provisions of the Juvenile Justice Act. DM’s are also responsible now for ensuring that CCIs falling in their district are following all norms and procedures. 

Juvenile Justice Act 2015: Important Details

After the Delhi gang rape case the Government faced much flak and came up with juvenile justice (Care and Protection of Children) Bill, 2014, which was surpassed by the Parliament in its present shape on 22nd December 2015. It acquired the President’s assent on 31st December 2015, and came into impact on 15th January 2016. It was called Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015.  The Act reaches out to the entire of India aside from the State of Jammu and Kashmir.

Here are a few definitions as per the Act:

A juvenile is a child or young person who, under the governing legal systems, may be dealt with an offence in a manner that is different from an adult.

"Abandoned child" means a child deserted by his biological or adoptive parents or guardians, who has been declared as abandoned by the Committee after due inquiry;

"Adoption" means the process through which the adopted child is permanently separated from his biological parents and becomes the lawful child of his adoptive parents with all the rights, privileges and responsibilities that are attached to a biological child;

"Adoption regulations" means the regulations framed by the Authority and notified by the Central Government in respect of adoption;

"Administrator" means any district official not below the rank of Deputy Secretary to the State, on whom magisterial powers have been conferred;

"Aftercare" means making provision of support, financial or otherwise, to persons, who have completed the age of eighteen years but have not completed the age of twenty-one years, and have left any institutional care to join the mainstream of the society. 

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