Evolution And Revaluation Of Deemed Majority In Juvenile Justice Act

Nandini Ravishankar, School of Law at Dr. Vishwanath Karad MIT World Peace University

ABSTRACT

The torrential downpour of cases where the apex court has called for guidelines to subject undertrial juveniles as adults is plentiful. This kindled fire which reignited the already prevalent debate regarding the rights of juveniles and if deemed majority has positive applicability. Opinions keep pouring in that assessments that are preliminary in nature cannot be a basis of superficial exercises that are undertaken in a routine manner. Moreover, deemed majority concept gets largely intercepted by the absence of an absolute rule or exhaustive list that can lead toward preliminary assessment. Psychological evaluation consequent to which the counselling takes place is meant to be kept confidential and presided over by a counsellor who can make the assessment report. In all, this gives room for wide discretionary powers without any enactment of procedural guidelines. When a Juvenile is considered as a deemed majority one needs to know the intent of the law, which was to get a wide range of experts working with the Juvenile justice system in India. Albeit the requirement of the report for arriving at critical Juvenile related decisions, the number of experts working in the field areas is only a handful who are being accepted at the face value then competence. This paper will shed light on:

A) Basic concept of Juvenile delinquency and offenses committed by juveniles; B) Comparative analysis of the act of 2000 and the amendment of 2015 to the Juvenile Justice Act; C) Stringent stances taken by the courts elucidated through case laws with regard to deemed majority concept; D) Introduction to the United Nations 10-point plan for Juvenile Justice and guidelines for action on children in the criminal justice system

Keywords: Juvenile, delinquency, deemed majority, Sensitivity, Paradigm-shift