‘Transferring juveniles to adult justice system detrimental’

“One of the points of agreement at the consultation was that there should be no exclusion of children from the JJ Act, or transfer to the adult justice system, for any offence. It has been observed to have more negative results than positive, as it does not reform or correct the children, but has quite the opposite effect. The purpose of the juvenile justice system is reformation, not revenge or retribution. Further, the provision is also in violation of several Supreme Court judgments as well as articles of the Constitution of India,” said TISS professor Asha Bajpai.

The group discussed recent brain studies, according to which risk-taking tendency is really high during adolescence, as well as instances where juvenile offenders were transferred to the adult justice system and were found to be more prone to re-offending. “There is only a small population of children who commit serious crimes. While we are not denying accountability for their crimes, they can be looked after with individual care programmes instead of transferring them to the criminal justice system,” said Bajpai.

Farida Lambay, co-founder of Pratham, an NGO, said, “We have decided to talk to a parliamentary sub-committee and present our recommendations before them. Also, political parties and elected representatives need to be sensitised on the issue of juvenile justice.”