Decoding the Juvenile Justice Amendment Bill and why it is being amended.
The Parliament recently passed The Juvenile Justice Amendment Bill 2021 with a welcoming opposition.
Union minister for women and child development Smriti Irani Introduced the Juvenile Justice Amendment Bill in the Rajya Sabha on 28th July 2021. The bill was first introduced in the Budget session of the parliament early this year. The bill seeks to amend The juvenile justice act, 2015.
A report filed in 2018–19 by NPCR brought to notice, that off the 7000 child care institutions which were surveyed, 1.5 percent did not conform to rules and regulations of the JJ act 2015, 29 percent of them had major shortcomings and also found that no institution complies 100 percent with the rules mentioned in the JJ act 2015. CCI’s can be privately run or through the government. These homes had very little monitoring. The amendment is primarily based on this report and offers to correct the shortcomings to make CCIs more rule compliant and make their functioning smoother.
Since the survey, the WCD Ministry shut down 500 illegal child welfare institutions, which were not registered under the JJ act.
Why the amendment?
This decision comes after some shortcomings and ambiguities of The juvenile justice act, 2015 came to light. The 2015 act replaced the Juvenile delinquency and Juvenile Justice ( care and protection of children) act 2000.
Smriti Irani said the changes give increased powers and more responsibilities to the District Magistrates, to ensure speedy trials and increased protection of children at district levels, with checks and balances in place. The aforementioned law also helps to speed up the process of adoption in the country.
What are the new provisions?
The amendment offers provisions to allow trials of juveniles aging 16–18 as an adult who were found to be in conflict with law, more specifically accused of heinous crimes.
The nature of the crime and if the juvenile should be treated as a minor or an adult would be decided by a Juvenile Justice Board.
Another major provision under the amendment is related to adoption. Till now, there are 2 major adoption laws, the Hindu Adoptions and maintenance Act (!956) and the Guardians of the Ward Act (1890) for Muslims. The act does not replaces the above mentioned laws, instead is brought in for a more universally acceptable adoption law.
The act has streamlined adoption procedures for abandoned, orphaned and surrendered children. It also gives the Central Adoption resource authority (CARA) status of a statutory body to enable it to perform its functions more efficiently.
Under the act, offences committed are categorized as petty offences, serious offences and heinous offences. Under the act, most heinous offences could be sentenced for a minimum of 7 years.
Under the act, serious and heinous crimes have been clarified for the first time, thus removing the ambiguity.
While the amendments are welcomed by everyone, the only concerns and challenges is the increase in responsibilities of the district magistrate. If not given the priority, the JJ act might be ignored and not be properly worked. To ensure proper implementation, the DM will have to arrange regular meetings with the CWC, JJ board, District child protection units and special juvenile police units.
