Kerala High Court allows man's plea for deletion of juvenile case records to protect his job prospects

The Kerala High Court recently granted relief to a 29-year-old man who sought the erasure of police records concerning a crime that he had been accused of when he was a minor/ juvenile, thereby ensuring that his past did not affect his future job prospects as an adult.

Justice Shoba Annamma Eapen held that even if a minor is convicted of a crime, records relating to such offences must be eventually be erased as per the law under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 (JJ Act).

Referring to a Supreme Court judgment, the High Court stressed that no stigma should be attached to acts committed by a person during his childhood. The very object of the JJ Act was to help juveniles reintegrate into society, the Court reiterated.

"In Union of India and others v. Ramesh Bishnoi [(2019)19 SCC 710], the Apex Court had held that even if the juvenile had been convicted, the same could not have been held against him since in terms of Section 3(xiv) of the Act, no stigma is to be attached to any crime committed by juvenile i.e., object of legislation is to reintegrate juvenile back in society as normal person," the August 14 ruling read.

The petitioner before the Court was among those accused in a case involving charges under Section 448 (house trespass) and Section 427 (mischief) of the Indian Penal Code in 2011. He was a minor at the time.

The case was later settled, and the petitioner was acquitted. However, his case records remained intact in the police department's internal digital database systems.

The petitioner was concerned that this could affect his future job prospects, in case details of this past case were disclosed to future employers during employment background checks or passport verifications.

The petitioner, therefore, approached the Juvenile Justice Board for relief in the matter, which ordered the deletion of such records.

The petitioner presented this order before the concerned police stations which had jurisdiction over his residence and where the case was originally registered.

However, he was later informed that the records were still available in the police department's internal digital system.

Aggrieved, the petitioner moved the High Court seeking directions to ensure that his case records were permanently deleted from all police databases.

The Court relied on Section 3(xiv) of the JJ Act, which provided that a fresh start should be given to children in conflict with law by erasing past records from the juvenile justice system, except in special circumstances.

It also highlighted Section 24, which required the destruction of juvenile records once case proceedings ended, ensuring that no child faced disqualification later in life.

The Court observed that since the petitioner was a minor when the alleged offences occurred and since he was later acquitted, there was no special circumstance to justify retaining his case records.

It thus directed the State, the Director General of Police and the police station house officers to permanently delete all case records concerning the petitioner.

"The writ petition is to be allowed by directing the respondents to immediately delete and expunge all case records relating to C.C.No.46/2011 on the files of the Juvenile Justice Board, Thalassery from their internal systems including the police department's digital database," the Court said.

The petitioner was represented by advocates Harikrishnan PB, Swetha and Muhammad Afsal A.

Government pleader KB Sony appeared for the State and police authorities.

[Read Judgement]