Don’t arrest minor accused: Juvenile Justice Board

The state has put in place new rules regarding minors accused in not-so serious offences. The new rules prevent cops from arresting and registering complaints against minors, other than in cases of serious offences.

But police in the state continue to be ignorant about the rule and so they regularly file complaints against juveniles and even arrest them for not offences that are not serious in nature.

It should be noted that it took the state 10 years to make its own rules to deal with juvenile offences for children who are in conflict with the society. What is even worse is when the state finally published these rules in February this year, the concerned departments have not enforced them due to lack of knowledge and expertise. The chairman of the Juvenile Justice Board had written a letter to the city police commissioner, chief metropolitan magistrate as well as superintendent of police (rural) for the implementation of these new rules on Thursday.

The new rules were published on February 14 by the social justice and empowerment department.

These rules restrict the cops from registering an FIR against a juvenile, with the exception of serious offenses such as rape, murder or if an adult accompanied the juvenile.

Further, the police cannot apprehend the juvenile, apart from cases of a serious nature where the punishment for an adult would be of seven years or more imprisonment.