Juvenile Bill to come up in Rajya Sabha today

Release of young convict triggers urgency

The Juvenile Justice (Amendment Bill) will be taken up in Rajya Sabha on Tuesday after the Opposition objected to the government’s decision to bring it through the supplementary agenda route.

On Monday, some MPs argued for immediate passing of the amendment that would consider youths between 16-18 years of age as adults while prosecuting them in heinous crimes like rape. The government immediately announced that it would bring the bill in the House on the same day through supplementary agenda.

However, senior Opposition MPs like Ghulam Nazi Azad and Sitaram Yechury said the government did not list it in Monday’s agenda and they could not be blamed for this. As soon as the House assembled, a day after a juvenile convict in Delhi gang-rape case was released, Trinamool Congress MP Derek O'Brien said he gave a notice under rule 267 seeking suspension of business and taking up the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2014.

“It is incumbent upon the House to listen to what is going on outside,” O’Brien said. As other MPs pointed fingers at the government, the treasury benches said it was willing to bring the bill through supplementary agenda route.

When the House reassembled for the post-noon session, the Opposition criticised the government’s move to bring the Juvenile Justice Bill through the supplementary agenda route.

Azad said the ruling side itself was complicating the issue. “We have said that we want to pass the SC/ST Bill. At the all-party meeting, I had said that the Juvenile Justice Bill should be tabled. But it was not in agenda today. But because of media reports, the government has now put it in the supplementary business. It is only a ruse to shame the opposition in public by saying that we had presented (the bill) but the opposition had objected,” Azad said.

He said the matter can be taken up on Tuesday and should be listed as the first in the business.

The House was adjourned due to protest by Congress and when it reassembled, the government wanted to take up ‘The Commercial Courts, Commercial Division and Commercial Appellate Division of High Courts Bill, 2015’, but the Congress did not relent.