Juvenile Privilege and Legal Conundrums: A Tragic Tale of Negligence and Justice

THE NATION IS truly aghast at the tragic loss of two young people thanks to the flagrant display of criminal negligence on the part of a wealthy youth. He is purportedly a spoilt brat who was driving his elite Porsche at a terrific speed.

This tragic incident is a chilling reminder of how fabulously rich parents fail to distinguish between parental love, care, and brazen mollycoddling of their minor kids.

Their children’s unfettered access to exorbitantly expensive vehicles and even highly sophisticated weapons is a telling commentary on the parents’ criminally irresponsible social behavior.

Resultantly, such spoilt brats appropriate to themselves a brazen sense of entitlement with no concern whatsoever for societal obligations. They unashamedly wear their power and status on their sleeves, largely the outcome of filthy lucre at their disposal.

Parents blissfully forget that without inculcating moral values and ethics in their children, they are pushing them into the abyss of grief, sorrow, and failure.

Parents commit an irrevocable blunder when they fail to appreciate that the provision of material comforts is a poor substitute for genuine and responsible care. Failure on the part of parents to appreciate this reality is bound to entail catastrophic consequences.

Apart from parental negligence, the incident also sheds light on the casual and effete functioning of the Juvenile Justice Board. It has been shy of taking a painstakingly holistic view in this highly sensitive case. The verdict delivered by the Juvenile Justice Board is egregious to say the least.

The accused’s release in no time exposes the Board to public scrutiny.

Not only has it failed to appreciate the gravity of the offense but also blissfully ignored the provisions of Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, which mandates that the children accused of heinous/serious offences in the age group of 16-18 are to be tried as adults.

This is indeed a sad commentary on our criminal justice system.

Unlike a judicial verdict, the order of the Board is akin to giving sermons to the parents rather than understanding the seriousness of the offense and passing an appropriate order.

It makes me wonder why the Board did not find the offense serious enough to take a more critical view of its severity.

To my mind, there is no provision in the Juvenile Justice Act which defines what constitutes a serious offense. To the best of my understanding, the statute lacks a provision capable of incorporating some yardsticks to delve into an offense before it is qualified to be titled as a serious offense.

Had this provision been there, the verdict of the Board would have possibly been different. What Section 2(54) of JJ Act provides for is the quantum of punishment and not the nature of seriousness of the offense.

By not specifically categorizing serious offenses and by simply stipulating the quantum of punishment, it appears as if the statute has left it to the wisdom and discretion of the court to look into the gravity of an offense.

There is nothing wrong per se for the court to take a call about the nature of the offense. One struggles to demystify as to why the Juvenile Justice Board did not find this particular offense to be serious enough to take a more legally tenable view.

Precisely, it is in this background that it may do a world of good to the criminal justice system if the category of serious offenses finds room in the statute.

It would have made it a lot easier for the Juvenile Justice Board to take a call about the seriousness of the offense. Albeit, the Pune police afterward filed a case of culpable homicide.

This should serve as an eye-opener for parents, enforcement authorities, judiciary, legal eagles, and society in general before it is too late.

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