Representational photo.

NEW DELHI: A group of ministers chaired by home minister Amit Shah on Friday discussed changes in the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act to re-categorise “heinous” and “serious” crimes for determining if a juvenile offender must be tried on par with an “adult”.

The meeting — attended by law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad , women & child development minister Smriti Irani , external affairs minister S Jaishankar , food processing minister Harsimrat Singh Badal and health minister Harsh Vardhan — comes in the backdrop of the Supreme Court’s direction to the Centre in a judgement delivered in January 2020, to urgently fill gaps in the Juvenile Justice Act 2015. The court asked the Centre to pass a legislation or an ordinance to determine the category of crimes which are not heinous like rape, murder and terrorism, but still punishable for seven years or more. The suggestion was to treat such crimes as “serious”, allowing the offender to be tried as a juvenile.

The JJ Act of 2015 defines ‘heinous offences’ as ones for which the minimum punishment under any law is imprisonment for seven years or more; petty offences for which imprisonment extends to three years; and “serious offences” which carry a jail term of 3-7 years.

Sources indicated that while the ministerial group noted with alarm the rising cases of involvement of juveniles in heinous crimes, the possibility of segregating “heinous” crimes that are pre-meditated and those committed in a fit of anger or unintentionally, was discussed. It was felt that the “bent of mind or mental faculty” of the juvenile must be assessed by experts before a call is taken on trying him as an adult.

Given the pendency in the courts and preoccupation of judges with more important matters, the GoM considered the proposal to let district magistrate or additional district magistrate be on the Juvenile Justice Board. Similarly, adoption committee could be headed by district magistrate and not a judge. The GoM also favoured robust scrutiny of agencies handling adoptions.

A Supreme Court bench of Justice Deepak Gupta and Aniruddha Bose had, in an order delivered last month in a hit-and-run case involving a minor four days short of adulthood, which resulted in the victim’s death, temporarily redefined ‘serious’ and ‘heinous’ offences under the JJ Act.

