Jammu: In a public interest litigation filed Farooq Khan seeking quashment of the provision of Juvenile Justice Act, recently amended to change age of juvenility.
A Division Bench of State High Court Comprising Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice Janak Raj Kotwal after hearing Sr. Adv Sunil Sethi with Advocates Veenu Gupta & Sumit Nayyar for the PIL, disposed of the PIL with a direction to the State Government to consider the issue of amending the provisions of Jammu and Kashmir Juvenile Justice (Care & Protection of Children) Act, in so far as it pertains to the reduction of age of Juvenile from 18 years to 16 years in the light of the submissions made in the writ petition as well as in the context of prevalent condition in the society as well as other relevant factors and the provisions of Juvenile Justice (Care & Protection of Children) Act, 2015, within a period of three months from the date of receipt of certified copy of the order passed today.
In the petition, Farooq Khan, sought declaration of provisions of section 2(m), 2(n), Section 21 the Jammu and Kashmir Juvenile Justice (Care & Protection of Children) Act, 2013 (Act No. VII of 2013 dated 24th April, 2013) as ultra-vires and violative of Article 14 and 21 of the Constitution of India and also sought directions to the State to confine the age of juvenility to 16 years as was the case before passing of the amended legislation and to effectively consider creating of classes/categories of cases where the benefit of juvenility is to be given under the provisions of the J&K Juvenile Justice (Care & Protection of Children) Act, 2013 to the persons who are above 14 and less than 16 years of age.