Twin factors have given wing to such pleas – an SC ruling of 2012 that a convict can at any time, even after dismissal of appeal by SC, raise the plea of juvenility for the first time; and Juvenile Justice Act, which bars incarceration beyond three years.
CJI: Just because SC carved out an exception, law being misued
A bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices PS Narasimha and J B Pardiwala on Tuesday was confronted with a plea of juvenility filed by a convict more than a year after SC dismissed his appeal against conviction. The trial court had convicted him for a 1997 murder in 1999 and Madhya Pradesh high court had upheld his conviction in 2017.
He had never whispered a plea about being a juvenile during the past 27 years, when the case against him rolled from trial court to the apex court. His plea for juvenility was scrutinised by SC because of its Oct 10, 2012 judgment in Abuzar Hossain case, where it ruled that “claim of juvenility… may be raised for the first time before SC as well after final disposal… The delay… cannot be a ground for rejection of such a claim.”
The CJI-led bench on Tuesday said, “Now that a plea of juvenility can be raised at any stage… Most of them are completely bogus and a waste of the court’s time.”
The murder convict, serving life term, had submitted a bogus birth certificate and a sarpanch’s panchnama as a supporting document. SC had ordered an inquiry and the district authorities concerned reported back that there was no evidence to substantiate his juvenile claim.
After dismissing the plea, CJI Chandrachud said, “Just because an exception was carved out by the SC judgment, this is how the law is being misused… The convicts must be careful in filing such applications in future.”
Section 9(2) of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 contemplated that whenever a claim of juvenility is raised before any court, the court shall make an inquiry and take such evidence as may be necessary.