Nirbhaya 'exception', all juveniles can’t be tried like adults: Allahabad High Court

Lucknow: In a significant observation, the Allahabad High Court has said that all juveniles cannot be subjected and tried like adults without proper consideration of the overall social and psychological effects on their psyche.

‘’Nirbhaya Case was an exception and not a general rule and all juveniles cannot be subjected and tried like adults without proper consideration of the overall social and psychological effects on their psyche,’’ the Court said.

The observation was made by a single bench comprising Justice Siddharth while allowing a criminal revision filed by a petitioner, who had challenged the order of a trial court and the Juvenile Justice Board to try him as an adult in a case of having consensual sexual relationship with a minor.

The court said that the trial court and the Board did not take into account the psychological evaluation report of the 16-year old petitioner, whose IQ level was 66 and his mental age was determined to be six years.

‘’Merely on the premise that the offence is heinous and that it lends to the societal volatility of indignation, we are bracing for juvenile recidivism. Retributive approach vis-a-vis juveniles needs to be shunned unless there are exceptional circumstances, involving gross moral turpitude and irredeemable proclivity for the crime,’’ the court said..

‘’Condemned, any juvenile is going to be a mere numeral in prison for a lifetime; reformed, he may redeem himself and may become a value addition to the Society. Let no child be condemned unless his fate is foreordained by his own destructive conduct. For this, a single incident not revealing wickedness, human depravity, mental perversity, or moral degeneration may not be enough.,’’ it added.

‘’Law is an evolving concept and has to keep pace with time. This court has no hesitation to hold that the nefarious effects of the visual mediums like television, internet and social-media on adolescents are not being controlled, nor it appears that the government can control the same, to prevent its deleterious effect on the adolescents, due to the uncontrollable nature of technologies involved.’’ It added.

Merely because he committed a heinous crime he cannot be put to par with an adult when his social exposure was also found to be deficient by the psychologist, the court went on to add.

The court quashed the order of the trial court and the Juvenile Justice Board and directed that the petitioner be tried as a juvenile.