ustice System and The Indian Constitution envisages a healthy society where children can be

emancipated from abuse and exploitation. The large population of street children do not have any
childhood and are born to eked out a living. Many of them do not have schooling despite the
constitutional mandate to give them free education up to age of 14.

However, some children not only defy the law but quite often break it and thus get caught in the
cobwebs of law. When a young person is involved in criminal case , he becomes a juvenile
delinquent. The accused enters the age of criminal responsibility where he is being considered
responsible for a crime. As per the international norms, and also under the juvenile Justice System
in India, a minor or a child cannot be tried in the same manner as an adult. A child is treated as Doli
Incapax, with no mens rea- the offender is not capable of understanding consequences of his/ her
actions.[1]

Section 27 of Criminal Procedure code ,1973 discusses about the jurisdiction in case of juvenile. It
lays down that any offence not punishable with death or imprisonment for life, committed by any
person who at the date appears before the court is under the age of 16 years, maybe tried by the
court of Chief Judicial Magistrate or any other court specially empowered by Children Act 1960, or
any other law for time being in force providing for treatment, training and rehabilitation juvenile
delinquents.

It is important to note that though albeit Crpc was amended in 2005, section 27 was not amended in
compliance with the existing juvenile system. Thus, the provision has become redundant.

The present legislative system in India was introduced by a 1986 Act and amended in 2000. The
Juvenile Justice Act (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2000, replaced the regular judicial process
with a reformatory regime, favoring supervised probation or stay in an observation home over
imprisonment.

The Juvenile Justice Act of 2000 was amended in 2015 which is a progressive legislation allowing
children in conflict with law in the age group of 16-18 involved in heinous offence to be tried as an
adult under certain circumstances . The Act does not, however, make it mandatory for all children in
this age group to be tried as adults. The amendment was proposed against the backdrop of
Nirbhaya Delhi Gang Rape Case [2] in which one of the offenders was 6 months short to attain the
age of 18 years.

Additionally the government cited National Crime Records Bureau Data (NCRB) stating that there
has been significant increase in crimes committed by juveniles especially in the age group of 16-18
years. NCRB data shows that the percentage of juvenile crimes, when seen in proportion to total
crimes, has increased from 1% in 2003 to 1.2% in 2013. During the same period, a percentage of all
juveniles accused of crimes increased from 54% to 66%.[3]

At present, everyone knows that there is an increasing rate of juvenile crimes and this increasing
rate is creating a debatable issue of age determination. Age determination is considered
indispensable in determining the maturity level of accused. According to sub- section 12 of Section 2
of The Juvenile (Care and Protection) Act, 2015 a child means a person who has not completed
eighteen years of age.