Children are the most vulnerable in society that need special care and attention, advocates in Manipur state and have appealed to all the investigation officers (IOs) to seize all required documents in Juvenile Justice (JJ) as age should be determined as per relevant provisions of law and to prevent misuse of such Act.
An Online Legal Awareness Programme was organized on Wednesday by District Legal Services Authority, Tamenglong on the topic entitled “Age Determination: Its importance in Juvenile Justice” in collaboration with Manipur State Legal Services Authority under the aegis of NALSA.
The programme was organised with the objectives to ensure fair, speedy enquiry and disposal of cases; to determine the age of the person produced before competent authority as soon as possible so as to prevent miscarriage of justice and to sensitize all the stakeholders for effective implementation of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 in its true spirit and letter.
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District and Sessions Judge, Imphal West cum chairman, DLSA, Tamenglong, Aribam Guneshwar Sharma stated that the age of the person produced before the JJB or Child Welfare Committee (CWC) or Magistrate or Court should be determined at the first instance so as to prevent miscarriage of justice although the age of juvenility can be claimed even after the disposal of the case. Thus, the belated claim of juvenility will not serve the objectives and purposes of the act, he added.
Advocate Thiyam Rajkishore, as resource person of the programme, stated that the JJ Act, 2015 is special legislation that deals with only two types of children, namely children in conflict with law and children in need of care and protection. If the age of the person is not determined at the initial stage of the case, it will cause injustice to all the children, Rajkishore said.
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He further stated that the age of a person can be determined from his physical appearance if it is obvious to the CWC or JJB as the case may be, as per relevant provisions of the act. In case, it is unable to determine the age of such a person as stated above, then the age should be determined from the documents as prescribed by the act, the Advocate said. Only in the absence of such documents, age should be determined by an ossification test. After determination of the age and what kind of child he is, the procedure to be adopted can be found out.
For taking advantage of lenient provisions of such beneficial legislation, some adult criminals try to manipulate their date of birth, the Advocate said. All the stakeholders have to take their responsibilities for rehabilitation and reformation of children so that they could be contributing members of the society, he added.
The programme was attended by members of JJB, Tamenglong and Noney; members of JJB, Imphal West; chairpersons and members of CWC, Tamenglong and Noney; Additional SP of Noney, Additional SP, Jiribam, APP to JJB, Tamenglong and Noney; IO and CWPOs under the jurisdiction of Tamenglong and Noney; Police Officers of Moirang PS, Singjamei PS, Lilong PS, Sugunu PS, Nambol PS.
