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Juvenile court fails to get off ground
KATHMANDU, JUN 13 -
Despite the provision in “Child Rights Act-1991” to set up a juvenile court to ensure the rights and attend to crimes of persons under 16, the state has not introduced such a court till date.
There is no specific court to deal with children who come in “contact with the law” or those children whose rights are violated. The government has established 26 benches which are just a temporary arrangement.
The Supreme Court on Nov.24, 2005 had directed the government to set up a separate Juvenile Court to decide cases related to juveniles under Child Rights Act, 1991. Responding to a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by advocate Santosh Kumar Mahato against the then ministeries, the SC stated, “Clause 55 of the Child Rights Act, 1991 states that the Juvenile Court be set up in order to hear cases related to children.” It had also ordered the government to inform the apex court immediately after execution of the order.
Howerver, the government has not made any effort whatsoever in that direction. Officials at the judiciary say the benches have been established to bridge the gap. “A total of 26 juvenile benches have been established in different courts across the country. Each bench has three members: a judge, a social worker and a child psychiatrist,” said Hemant Rawal, Assistant Spokesperson at the Supreme Court.
Officials at the judiciary agree that the government has not been as active as it needs to be. “Lack of juvenile courts is creating problems. The Child Rights Act does not describe children as criminals, no matter what they do. They need special treatment.” he said. “We are working to establish such courts, but we have not reached that end yet.”
As per the Act, the present system of “juvenile bench” should not entertain or decide a criminal charge against children. However, due to absence of a special court for children neither the judiciary has been able to properly address their rights nor has it been able to stop compelling children to live in adult jails or prevented their punishment or torture.
“The procedural part of this system is being challenged at the time of implementation because the government has not still realised that the children who commit illegal offences are also victims as far as their immaturity is concerned,” said advocate Ashish Adhikary. “Those benches mainly focus on children who commit crimes but they forget that such children are also exploited.”
An average number of 100 such cases are registered after December 2005. Uptil December 2005, there were were only 160 such cases. The data includes both the victims and the victimized.
Posted on: 2010-06-14 07:49
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