Age verification of juveniles should be completed in 15 days: Delhi High Court

The Delhi High Court has ordered that investigating officers probing offences committed by juveniles should obtain documents related to age proof and ensure that the ossification test for determination of age is done within 15 days from the date the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) issues such directions (Court on its own motion v State)..The order was passed by a Bench of Justices Siddharth Mridul and Anup Jairam Bhambhani.“In all cases pertaining to juveniles in conflict with law, regardless of the nature of offences alleged, the JJB shall ensure that the process of age-determination of the juvenile is completed within 15 days from the filing of documents relating to proof of age/ossification test report by the Investigating Officer, as the case may be,” the Court said. .The Court also directed education institutions as well as all the concerned authorities to cooperate and give priority to the requests made by the investigating officer for determination of age of accused juvenile.“It is further directed that all persons/educational institutions/medical institutions/governmental authorities to whom a request is made by an Investigating Officer for providing documentation towards age-determination or for conducting ossification test on a juvenile, shall give priority, cooperate and undertake necessary procedures and processes to enable compliance with the time-lines set-out above,” the Court stated..The directions were passed in a suo motu case concerning the status of juveniles in correction home as well as functioning of juvenile justice boards in Delhi. It was informed by Anu Grover Baliga, secretary Delhi High Court Legal Services Committee (DHCLC), who was assisting the Court, that the most significant reason for delay in disposal of inquiries was that no time frame has been stipulated under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 (JJ Act) or Model Rules, 2016 for completing the process of age determination of juveniles. She added that it was also common for officers to take substantial time for producing documents and getting the ossification test done..Senior advocate HS Phoolka, amicus curiae in the case, also pointed out that even though sizeable corpus is available in the Juvenile Justice Fund set up under Section 105 of JJ Act, little has been disbursed for the intended purposes over the past several years. He added that there was a proposal to set up eleven JJBs for Delhi but only six of them have become functional even though it has eleven judicial districts.The State was therefore, directed to inform the Court about the quantum of money sanctioned and allocated for Juvenile Justice Fund and the money disbursed for the fund and for what purpose.“The State is also directed to apprise the court as to the status of the proposal to increase the number of JJBs in the city, including the timelines proposed for the purpose,” the Bench said..The State was also asked to provide information about inquires into petty offences which have been going on for six months to one year.The Court, while hearing the same matter, had earlier directed the government to terminate all inquiries going on for more than a year against juveniles for petty offences. It had also sought details of inquiries pending for between six months to a year before the various JJBs.The case will now be heard on December 14..[Read Order]