JUVENILE JUSTICE
The Indian Constitution incorporates fundamental safeguards—including Articles 15(3), 24, 39(e)/(f), and 45—to ensure that children are protected from poverty, neglect, and exploitation.
Historically, criminal justice systems treated young offenders as adult criminals by placing them in conventional prisons, exposing them to hardened offenders and escalating social harm.
To remedy this, Indian juvenile jurisprudence evolved around two legal doctrines: parens patriae, where the State steps in as a protective parent, and the mens rea doctrine, which recognizes that children lack the fully developed cognitive capacity required for standard criminal intent.
Following international commitments such as the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child ratified in 1992, India updated its statutory landscape through earlier enactments like the Children Act of 1960 and the Juvenile Justice Act of 1986, culminating in the consolidated Juvenile Justice Act of 2000.
Enhanced by 2006 amendments, the law firmly established that juvenility applies to anyone under 18 years at the time of the offence, and allowed individuals to raise claims of juvenility before any court at any stage of legal proceedings.
1. JUVENILE JUSTICE (CARE AND PROTECTION OF CHILDREN) ACT, 2015
The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 replaced the older 2000 legislation to establish a child-centric system centered on reform and rehabilitation rather than punishment.
Section 3 sets out 16 fundamental guiding principles—such as the presumption of innocence, the best interest of the child, dignity, non-stigmatising semantics, privacy, and treating institutionalisation as a measure of last resort.
Under its operational structure, the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) handles children in conflict with the law, while the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) addresses children needing care and protection.
For juveniles aged 16 to 18 accused of heinous crimes, the JJB performs a preliminary assessment of capacity rather than a standard trial; if appropriate, the matter may be transferred to a designated Children’s Court, where trials maintain child-friendly safeguards and offer reassessment upon reaching 21 years of age.
Statutory age determination follows a strict hierarchy—prioritising school certificates, then municipal birth records, and resorting to medical ossification tests within 15 days only when documents are absent.
While standard protections guarantee bail (unless safety or justice is compromised), ban capital punishment and adult lock-ups, and remove post-conviction disqualifications for most offences, the Act also creates strict penal consequences for crimes against children, making offences carrying three or more years of imprisonment cognizable and non-bailable.