Bonafide Plea of Juvenility

The Supreme Court recently, Plea of juvenility has to be raised in a bonafide and truthful manner and if a document of dubious nature is relied on to seek juvenility, the accused cannot be treated to be juvenile keeping in view that the law is a beneficial legislation.

A bench of Justices Hemant Gupta and V Ramasubramanian said the provisions of the statute are to be interpreted liberally but the benefit cannot be granted to the appellant who has approached the Court with the untruthful statement.

The top court’s observation came while dismissing an appeal challenging an order passed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court which set aside direction passed by the Additional Sessions Judge, Fatehabad in Haryana.

The sessions judge had declared the accused as a juvenile in conflict with the law.

The Court said that if a document of dubious nature is relied on to seek juvenility, the accused cannot be treated to be juvenile keeping in view that the law is a beneficial legislation.

• Juvenile offenders (age below 18 years) are given protection under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000 (JJ Act).
• Under Section 7 A of the JJ Act, an accused person can raise the ‘claim of juvenility’ before “any court, at any stage, even after the final disposal of the case”.