If a Minor Commits Murder (Part 1)

Under-18 Crime

This piece is about children from whom some offence is committed. Personally, I would not like to call these children 'accused' — I would call them innocent, not accused of breaking the law — calling them 'accused' does not fit, because children's mental development is still taking place; if the poor child has fallen into bad company, it is the duty of society and the state to give him good company. If his parents are habitual criminals, it is the state's duty to protect this child, to give this child an environment in which his mental upbringing happens in a positive way, not a negative way. If children commit an offence, the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance 2000 deals with them. Now, according to the law, a child is one who has not reached eighteen years of age. A Borstal Institute is such an institution, or such a lock-up or such a place of detention, where children who have committed some offence are kept, and where, keeping in view their welfare and their psychological distress, their mental upbringing is carried out in a positive manner, and their disposition is watched — whether their disposition is heading toward crime or toward something positive. These are the responsibilities of a Borstal Institute. Now, what probation deals with — probation means a period during which this child can be reformed. The Probation of Offenders Ordinance 1960 deals with this. Now, if an offence has been committed by a child — circumstances compel children to commit offences, circumstances make children commit offences, the environment makes a child commit an offence — and it is our responsibility, as adults, that the child's upbringing be carried out in such a manner that he not only turns away from crime but also has, in a positive sense, an awareness that this act is wrong. Now, if, God forbid, some offence is committed by a child, the state's first responsibility is to provide him legal aid. This is the first responsibility — that he be provided a lawyer, and that lawyer should be one who has been practising for at least five years. A lawyer with less than five years of practice should not be given, otherwise he will be a half-baked practitioner — in fact I say one with ten-plus years should be given, so that he goes through this process with complete clarity. Now the third element comes in — how will the child's age be determined? How will the court determine that this child is under eighteen years of age?
1. The birth certificate, called 'janam parchi', called in Punjabi 'jaman parchi'.
2. The B-Form.
3. School-leaving certificate.
4. Medical test.

1. First is the birth certificate, the janam parchi. The court will consider this — if, at that time — meaning, say the child is sixteen years old — the registration was made sixteen years ago, that he was born on that day; or if he is twelve years old, and the record shows registration made twelve years ago, that he was born on that day — then that janam parchi, that birth certificate, that jaman parchi, will carry full weight of truth. But if a document is produced before the court in the form of a janam parchi, jaman parchi, or birth certificate whose registration was made after this incident occurred, then the court will not accept it.
2. The second stage is the B-Form. In the B-Form too, the same double test will apply — when was this B-Form made? If the B-Form was made during the normal period after birth — that normal period is three to four years — after that it is not counted within the normal period.
3. Now, after the B-Form, comes the school-leaving certificate. Now the date of birth you have recorded in the school-leaving certificate can be disputed — a year forward, a year back. If it works out to seventeen and a half years, the school-leaving certificate will not be given weight. Then
4. The medical test — when the court has doubts about these things — that the birth certificate, B-Form, school-leaving certificate are not correct, the court will not be in a position to clearly determine what the child's age is — then a medical test will be conducted, called an ossification test. In the ossification test, the age will then be determined. Now, there is a margin in the ossification test too — one year can be added, one year can be subtracted, but the lower figure will be accepted. Now if the ossification test shows the child's age to be less than eighteen, the court will be duty-bound to treat him as a juvenile. All this work happens after the challan is submitted — an FIR was registered; after the FIR, the child was arrested; after arrest, the challan was prepared; after preparation of the challan, he was produced before the court; after being produced before the court, the court determined [his age]; after determining it, it declared him a juvenile. Now the question arises: if there are two adults with the child, the law says their challan must be submitted together — the challan of the child and the adults must be submitted together. After being produced, once the court declares him a juvenile, it will separate this child's case from those adults. The law says that a juvenile's trial, the hearing of a juvenile's case, will not take place along with adult accused — it will be separate. Now, when a Juvenile Court is constituted, on the day of his trial, only the juvenile's trial will take place — no other trial will happen. What is the purpose behind this? The purpose is that regard is given to the child's innocence. I told you — an innocent one who has broken the law — if, in his innocence, he has committed an offence, then his case will not be made public. The proceedings of his case will not be made public — to any media, whether print, electronic, or social. No proceedings of that court, which is running under the juvenile system, will be made public.

When his trial is going on, an unrelated person will not be in that courtroom. Now let's come back to our point — when this child is arrested, what responsibilities does the police have? Section 10 of the Juvenile Justice System 2000 — as soon as the police arrest the child, first of all they will inform his guardian. His guardian can be his father, can be his mother, or it can be someone the court has appointed. They will immediately inform them that this child has committed this offence, is in our custody, and will inform them that at such-and-such time, on such-and-such date, in such-and-such court he will be produced — and along with this, the police will also warn the probation officer that, look, gather all information about this child by the time he is to be produced in court, to be presented in court, and that probation officer will be duty-bound to present all that information to the court — where this child lives, what is the child's age, what does this child do, what do this child's parents do, what are this family's tendencies.