Theme: Police & Courts

Juvenile Justice Board

The Juvenile Justice Board is the body that deals with children who have been accused of committing a crime. They are expected to help the child who has committed the crime by:

  • Dealing with the child in the least intimidating and most child-friendly manner possible
  • Ensuring that the child is fully informed so that they can participate in the legal process
  • Ensuring access to legal aid for the child
  • Providing a translator/interpreter if the proceedings are happening in a language that the child does not understand
  • Providing care to the child who has committed the crime by involving the Child Welfare Committee in the matter

FIR Registration

Please see our classification of crimes to understand if an FIR needs to be registered.

Petty Offences: No registration of an FIR is required.

Serious Offences: No registration of an FIR is required (They are supposed to record it in the general diary along with the social background report for these two types of offences).

Heinous Offence: An FIR needs to be filed against a child.

Arresting a child

There are certain rules the police have to follow while arresting a child offender. They are:

  • The police cannot handcuff or exert any force when they arrest a child
  • The police officer must immediately inform the parents or guardians
  • The police officer must tell the child the location of the Juvenile Justice Board where they will be taken.

Punishment for Children

The punishments for Petty Offences and Serious Offences can include:

  • Give the child a firm warning, then let them go home while simultaneously counselling the parents.
  • Ordering the child to attend group counselling sessions
  • Ordering the child to perform supervised community service
  • Ordering the child’s parents or guardians to pay a fine
  • Releasing the child on probation. The parents or guardians will have to pay a bond for up to 3 years that makes them responsible for the child’s behaviour. The responsibility can also be handed over to a ‘fit person’ or ‘fit facility,’ which is a person or government organization or NGO that is prepared to accept responsibility for the child.
  • Sending the child to a Special Home for up to 3 years.

If the Board thinks that keeping the child in the Special Home would be against their best interests or the best interests of other children in that home, then the child could be sent to a Place of Safety. The Board may also order the child to attend a school or vocational training, or prevent the child from going to a specified place.

The law focuses on making sure children are rehabilitated and the Board or the Children’s Court has to develop and oversee an Individual Care Plan to help this happen. An Individual Care Plan is a development plan addressing issues like health, nutrition, emotional, and educational needs.

Children’s Court

If the Board decides that a child should be tried as an adult after a Preliminary Assessment, it sends the case to a Children’s Court. The Children’s Court may be an existing Sessions Court that deals with child-specific laws, or a special court set up to deal with crimes under the Juvenile Justice Act. The Children’s Court may then do one of two things:

They may decide that the child must be treated as an adult for the trial, and then conduct a regular trial and pass final judgment. While the Children’s Court can generally pass the maximum sentence for a Heinous Offence (a sentence of more than 3 years), it cannot sentence the child to the death penalty or life imprisonment without the possibility of release.

They may decide that there is no need to try the child as an adult and may conduct an inquiry like the Board did, and pass orders under Section 18 of the Juvenile Justice Act.

In all proceedings, the Children’s Court must make sure the atmosphere is child-friendly. It must also ensure that the child is sent to a Place of Safety if they are detained during proceedings. If the child is found guilty of having committed a Heinous Offence, they will be sent to the Place of Safety until they are 21 years old, after which they can be sent to jail. The child should have access to services like education and skill development while they are at the Place of Safety.

Preliminary Assessment of a child’s crime

A preliminary assessment is conducted when a heinous offence is committed by a child over the age of 16. This is an attempt to find out whether the child was mature enough to understand their action and the consequences of them when they committed the crime. If the child was mature enough, the proceedings need to be conducted in the same way an adult would be. The Board can take the help of trained psychologists and experts to arrive at its conclusions but must complete the inquiry within 3 months.

 

Driving Without A License

While driving, it is mandatory to keep a copy of a valid Driving License with you at all times1, and present it to a police officer on demand2. Now, you can also carry an electronic copy of your driving license in the DigiLocker or mParivahan app3. If you hold a valid driving license but do not have it when an officer asks you to produce it, you may be punished with a fine between Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,0004. You may alternatively produce it to the officer/authority who has asked you for it, within a stipulated time period, which varies across states5. 

 If your license has been submitted to or seized by, governmental authority or officer, then you must produce a receipt or any other form of acknowledgement, and produce the license within a stipulated time period that varies across states2. 

If you drive a vehicle and you do not possess a driving license or have not attained the required age to drive it, then your vehicle can be seized and detained by a police officer6. Furthermore, you can be punished with a fine of Rs. 5,000 or with jail time of up to 3 months, or both7.

The applicable fine amount might vary across states. Given below are the fine amounts of different offences for two states.

State Type of Vehicle Fine Amount (In INR)
Delhi Not applicable 5,000
Karnataka Two/Three-Wheeler 1,000
Light Motor Vehicle 2,000
Others 5,000
  1. Section 6(3),  Motor Vehicles (Driving) Regulations, 2017. [↩]
  2. Section 130(1), The Motor Vehicles Act, 1988. [↩] [↩]
  3. Section 139, Central Motor Vehicles Rules,1989. [↩]
  4. Section 177A, The Motor Vehicles Act, 1988. [↩]
  5. Section 130(4), The Motor Vehicles Act, 1988. [↩]
  6. Section 207(1), The Motor Vehicles Act, 1988. [↩]
  7. Section 181, The Motor Vehicles Act, 1988. [↩]

Right to Bail

You have a right to bail. This right can be directly exercised in the case of bailable offences. For non-bailable offences, this right is dependent on the discretion of the court.   

The rationale of giving bail is that, if there is no substantial risk of the accused fleeing, then there should be no reason why he should be imprisoned. Granting bail usually comes at an early stage. 

The Court takes into account your gender, health and age while granting you bail. The Court may grant you bail more easily if you fall in the category of the following sets of persons:

  1. Women
  2. Children below the age of sixteen
  3. Sick and Infirm people

 

Police Arrest With Warrant

An arrest is when a person is physically detained by the police. No person can be detained by the police without being informed of the reasons and the basis in law for their arrest. 

Generally, the police need a warrant to arrest someone. Crimes for which a warrant is required are called non-cognizable offences. On receiving information of a non-cognizable crime, the police must take permission from the Magistrate to arrest someone. This permission from the Magistrate is known as a warrant. 

What is Free Legal Aid?

Free legal aid means providing legal services, free of cost, to certain sections of the society like a beggar, differently-abled person, etc., as and when required. This does not mean that anyone can go and ask for legal aid. You have to be eligible to apply for it.

 

The purpose of providing legal aid is to ensure that no person is deprived of legal services and justice due to lack of money((  FAQs, National Legal Service Authority, https://nalsa.gov.in/faqs.)). You can get free legal aid when:

  • You cannot afford to pay or engage a lawyer to represent you in court or for any other purpose. For example, you can get legal aid when you are appealing your sentence(( Madav Hayavadanrao Hoskot Vs. State of Maharastra (1978)3 SCC 544.)), or if you are appearing in front of the Magistrate for the first time(( Khatri II Vs. the State of Bihar, (1981) 1SCC; 1981 SCC (Cri) 228; 1981 Cri. LJ 470.)) etc.
  • You want legal advice, legal services or legal steps to take for a problem.
  • You need help with getting legal documents ready.
  • You need help to pay court fees for a case or any other fee required for legal processes
  • You want to apply for compensation or get money through the Court.

 

You have a constitutional right to legal aid1, which means that the state is constitutionally bound to provide legal aid to you at all stages i.e. not only at the stage of trial but also when you are first produced before the Magistrate or let off on bail, etc. Legal aid authorities cannot deny you this right stating excuses or reasons like the fact that you did not ask for help or that the authorities have financial or administrative constraints(( Hussainara Khatoon v. Home Secretary, State of Bihar [(1980) 1 SCC 98])). If you are eligible for legal aid, you have every right to get it. 

 

Please note that this explainer only gives a general central overview of the procedures in relation to getting free legal aid, and the procedure varies across states. 

  1. Article 22, 39-A, Constitution of India, 1950; Hussainara Khatoon v. Home Secretary, State of Bihar [(1980) 1 SCC 98]. [↩]