The Juvenile Justice Committee has asked the Board of School Education to conduct the exam of a juvenile who missed his class 12 test in October this year due to his detention by police.
On October 29 this year, a class 12th student from Shopian was picked by police station Imam Saheb allegedly in place of his brother and was detained at the police station for two days. Due to the illegal detention, the 18-year-old didn’t sit in his examination.
Justice (R) Hasnain Masoodi, chairperson Selection–cum- Oversight Committee – an apex body for the monitoring and evaluation of the Juvenile Justice Act – said, “I have spoken to Chairperson BOSE, Veena Pandita, and requested her to intervene in the matter and ensure that the juvenile appears in the examination so that his academic year is saved. I have also asked the concerned police officer not to detain children in the name of counselling as such practices amount to gross violation of Juvenile Justice Act.”
Despite a Juvenile Justice System in Jammu and Kashmir, children continue to serve imprisonment in jails.
The J&K Juvenile Justice Act 1997 was amended in 2013 and the amended rules laid out the formation of Juvenile Justice Boards in each district of Jammu and Kashmir headed by a magistrate. The purpose of these boards is to protect the rights of children in conflict with the law.
As per the report published by J&K Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS) ‘Terrorized: Impact of Violence on the Children of J&K,’ on 16 September 2016, 16-year-old juvenile from Delina, Baramulla, was arrested by police under charges of throwing stones at government forces. Two days later, he was booked under PSA.
“The PSA order that the juvenile was 18-year-old was incorrect according to his school records. The order was challenged by his family in High Court, and the family produced documents proving he was 16-year-old,” the report of the JKCCS revealed.
The High Court on 7 October 2016 stated that he be treated as a Juvenile under JJ Act, as prima facie evidence suggested that he was a minor and he should be transferred to a juvenile home.
He was released three weeks after the High Court quashed his PSA on 6 December 2016. Before releasing him, he was taken to Joint Interrogation Centre (JIC) Jammu where he was detained for some days before he was sent to Baramulla Police Station where he was kept for few weeks before being released.
In one more case, the report stated, on 28 August 2016, a 14-year-old juvenile was arrested by police from his home at Frisal in Kulgam district. He spent 20 days in illegal detention at a police station in Bijbehara before he was booked under PSA, despite being a minor.
His age was wrongly written as 21 by district magistrate Anantnag. He was shifted to Kathua Jail in Jammu, some 250 kms away from his home.
In another case of detention, a 17-year-old was arrested from his home at Kralgund, Handwara on 5 September 2016 and detained at police station Kralgund. He spent 14 days in illegal custody before PSA charges were brought against him on 19 September 2016. In the dossier his age was wrongly stated as 22.
“To arrive at any exact number of detention of children under PSA in Jammu and Kashmir is not readily possible as government hasn’t maintained any such data, because all arrests under PSA, whether of children, youth or old are carried out in a fashion that the age of the detainee, in case of minors, is almost always deliberately kept to be above 18 years on the dossier prepared by police,” the JKCCS in its report had stated.