 "Nirbhaya's Mother Asha Devi addresses at a programme to observe the third anniversary of Nirbhaya gang-rape case as 'Nirbhaya Chetna Divas' at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi. Social activists Shabana Azmi is also seen")
Rajya Sabha is all set to pass the Juvenile Justice amendment bill today. This follows a public outcry after the juvenile in the 2012 Delhi rape case was set free post serving his 3 year term under the juvenile law. But juvenile reform activists fear that public outcry seeking the law to be strengthened against juvenile criminals has drowned saner voices calling for deliberation and not knee jerk action.
Amidst all this public outrage and anger in the Nirbhaya case over the juvenile criminal, the hard facts of the case lie forgotten.
Reading and scrutinising the court judgement about the juvenile's actions in the horrific episode, shows that he was not “the most brutal” or heinous as popular notion and some (ill informed) news reports have been portraying. Even Nirbhaya's friend who was a witness to the blood curdling episode testified to the same.
While this does not absolve the juvenile from the barbaric crime in which he was found guilty, unconfirmed reports pointing towards his brutal role has helped in building public opinion in seeking his custody to be extended and trial under the new law once it is passed in the Parliament.
One of the contentious provision in the new law will be lowering the age bar from 18 years to 16 years. This means that anyone above 16 will be treated as an adult and not under the juvenile act which places a huge emphasis on reform and rehabilitation rather than a stiff sentence.
Legislators and MPs who till the other day, were convinced about the need for greater deliberation and for sending the JJ bill to a Select committee of Parliament are now expressing helplessness in the face of public anger. Even the Congress and the Left MPs who were calling for greater debate earlier, are now apprehensive of taking a stand against popular “lynch mob” mentality.
Big cases make for Bad Law - and MPs today are slated to pass the bill in the Rajya Sabha, without asking for greater deliberation and debate.
The Delhi Commission for Women has jumped into the fray calling for an immediate change in the law, after the Supreme Court rejected their plea for stay on the release of the juvenile in the 2012 Delhi rape case.
Child rights experts allege that the authorities and the Women and Child Development ministry included, instead of focusing on strengthening the Juvenile Justice system, making it actually work so that juveniles don't step out as greater criminals, bolstering up the prevention mechanism and having a robust education system, prefer an immediate knee jerk reaction to placate the public.
Several MPs that Business Standard spoke to confessed they would want the law, especially since it concerns a sensitive issue like child criminals to be enacted in an objective, dispassionate manner. But in the present scenario, they would not want to be seen to be going against public opinion, however dangerous or shortsighted that it may be.
