Whether seriousness or gravity of crime should play a key role in deciding matter of bail of a juvenile?

Allahabad High Court: While dealing with a matter of revision application of a juvenile, wherein the order of the Juvenile Justice (JJ) board as well as the order of session court denying bail to the juvenile has been challenged, the Single Judge bench of Hon'ble Anil Kumar Sharma J., held that if an accused is declared a juvenile, the benefits of the JJ Act must be given to him and therefore bail must be granted to him. The key question that arose for consideration before the Court was whether seriousness or the gravity of the crime should play a key role in deciding the matter of bail of a juvenile. The learned judge opined that since the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000 is a beneficiary and social reform oriented legislation; all decisions related to juveniles must be in conformity with this Act. Since Section 12 of the JJ Act, does not give any importance to the gravity of offence, it should not be a consideration while deciding a matter of bail of a juvenile. The only situation which can result in denial of bail is when it can be sufficiently proved that grant of bail would result in interference with the course of justice or that the juvenile might engage in criminal activities in association with other criminals etc. In the present case, since the prosecution could not prove such facts; denying bail to the juvenile did not make sense. Accordingly, the orders of the lower court and the JJ Board, being contrary to the provisions of law, were set aside and revision was allowed along with grant of bail.[Mohit v. State of U.P, Criminal Revision No. 1631 of 2013, decided on August 7th, 2013]

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