SC admits Swamy’s petition on definition of “juvenile”; Permits JJB to pass orders on Delhi gang rape accused

The Supreme Court today admitted a Special Leave Petition (SLP) filed by Dr. Subramanian Swamy seeking interpretation of the definition of “juvenile” under the Juvenile Justice Act (Act) in the light of UN Convention on Rights of Child..Swamy had contended in his petition that the Juvenile Justice Act as it currently exists lacks the nuances of the definition of “juvenile” under the UN Convention on Rights of Child. He had submitted in his petition that irrespective of the age limit fixed in the definition of a ‘juvenile’, it must be accompanied by a qualifying remark that the mental and intellectual level of the concerned person would also be taken into account while deciding the culpability of the juvenile. He had further contended that in case of heinous crimes there should be no hard and fast rule in deciding whether a person is juvenile or not and that the court should read into the law what the Parliament had intended by virtue of the doctrine of “casus omissus”..Swamy’s argument was that the as per the preamble of the Act, the statute was enacted in consonance with the UN Convention on Rights of Child but it failed to consider “mental and intellectual maturity” of the child envisaged in the UN Convention due to poor drafting. Swamy had also extensively used the example of the juvenile accused in the Delhi gang rape and sought for a stay on the pronouncement of a final verdict by the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) in that particular case..When the matter had come up for hearing on August 14, Additional Solicitor General Siddharth Luthra had submitted that Swamy did not have the locus to contest the matter as he was a third party in the Delhi gang rape case. Luthra had also submitted that the petition filed by Swamy had been dismissed by Delhi High Court on the ground that it was not maintainable..Swamy had, however, argued that he was not contesting in the Delhi gang rape case but was seeking an interpretation of the definition of Juvenile under the Act and the Delhi gang rape case was only used by him as an example to prove his point. He had also stated that anything which appeared to the contrary in his petition was only a result of bad drafting which he sought to be excused. The Court after hearing the matter had reserved its verdict on the maintainability..In its order today, the Bench of CJI P Sathasivam, and Justices Ranjan Gogoi and Ranjana Prakash Desai held that the “SLP does not suffer from absence of locus” and stated that it would proceed to hear the matter on merits. The Bench issued notice to the Central government but also clarified that the JJB trying the juvenile accused in the Delhi gang rape case was open to pass orders. Earlier this month, the JJB had deferred its verdict after Swamy had informed the JJB that the Supreme Court was seized of the matter.