JJ Act | Punjab & Haryana High Court Issues Notice On Plea Requiring Police, Prison Authorities To Determine Age Of Accused At Earliest

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has sought response from both the State governments and Chandigarh administration on a PIL seeking directions to police, prison authorities and Courts to determine the age of an accused at the earliest, as per Juvenile Justice Act, 2015 (JJ Act).

Observing that the issue "is of grave public importance regarding how the juveniles are to be treated", a division bench of Acting Chief Justice G.S. Sandhawalia and Justice Lapita Banerji issued notice to States of Haryana, Punjab, UT Chandigarh and other authorities.

The Court further added that, "keeping in view the issue as such, let Legal Services Authority of both the States of Punjab and Haryana be also impleaded as respondents by filing amended memo of parties."

Akshay Chopra, a fourth year law student of NLU, Delhi has moved the High Court seeking directions to the police, prison authorities and Courts of Punjab, Haryana and UT Chandigarh to determine the age of accused first, as per JJ Act and then proceed with law, so that the rights of such children in conflict with law can be protected.

The investigating agency does not take any steps to collect documentary evidence like matriculation certificates, birth certificates, etc. from the institutions attended by the arrested persons and straightaway mentions some arbitrary age of the accused, the plea states.

Chopra has highlighted several cases of juveniles wherein after spending years in jails they are declared a minor. As per the petition, in several cases the arrest memo was silent on age of the accused.

The plea also seeks direction to police officers to prepare the Age Memo as per the principles reiterated by the Delhi High Court in Court on its own motion vs. Department of Women and Child Development and others [WP (C) No. 8889 of 2011 ]. Age Memo shall also be delivered to the alleged offender and his parents/ guardians/ or relative who have been intimated about his arrest, the plea adds.

Directions are also sought to Trial Courts to expeditiously decide the application for declaration of juvenility, preferably within one month and to adopt a strict approach to enforce that the age verification report is submitted by the investigating agencies within 15 days.

The matter is deferred to April 02, for further consideration.

Dr. Shikhar Goel and Abhimanyu Jangra Advocates for the petitioner.

Title: Akshay Chopra v. State of Haryana and others

Click here to read/download the order