Juvenile Justice Act | Preliminary Assessment U/S 15 Not Required For Grant Of Bail U/S 12: Madhya Pradesh High Court

Justice G.S. Ahluwalia was essentially dealing with a criminal revision under Section 102 of the Act, wherein the Applicant was challenging the order passed by the JJB, whereby it granted bail under Section 12 of the Act to a child alleged to be in conflict with law.

The Applicant argued that since the impugned order was passed without making preliminary assessment as required under Section 15 of the Act, 2015, the bail order was bad in law.

Accordingly, the Court framed the following question to be considered-

Whether Juvenile Justice Board can decide an application under Section 12 of the Act, 2015, even prior to making preliminary assessment under Section 15 of the Act, 2015 or the Board should take up the application filed under Section 12 of the Act, 2015 only after making a preliminary assessment under Section 15 of the Act, 2015.

Noting the submissions of the parties, the Court examined the provisions under Sections 12, 15 and 18 of the Act and observed that there is no bar against entertaining an application under Section 12 of the Act without conducting a preliminary assessment by the JJB under Section 15 of the Act-

Thus, it is clear that Section 12 of the Act, 2015 deals with bail to a person who is apparently a child alleged to be in conflict with law. There is no provision in the section to the effect that the said application cannot be entertained prior to holding any preliminary assessment under Section 15 of the Act, 2015. Furthermore, it is clear from Section 15(2) of the Act, 2015 that whether Board is satisfied on preliminary assessment that the matter should be disposed of by the Board, then the Board shall follow the procedure, as far as may be, for trial in summons case under the Code of Criminal Procedure.

The Court then scrutinized the provision under Section 18(3) of the Act and noted that preliminary assessment under Section 15 is to be made for the purpose of trial and therefore, it would necessarily mean that the trial would commence only after framing of charges and that the bail application could always be decided much prior to that.

With the aforesaid observations the Court concluded-

Accordingly, it is held that since the preliminary assessment of the child in conflict with law is for the purposes of trial i.e., as to whether he should be tried by the Juvenile Justice Board or by the Children's Court, therefore, it will not curtail the power of Juvenile Justice Board to consider the application filed under Section 12 of the Act, 2015.

Having dealt with the only contention raised by the Applicant, the revision was accordingly dismissed.