J&K High Court Reprimands Courts & Juvenile Boards For Disclosing Full Identity & Address of Juveniles in Their Orders

Srinagar: A bench of Justice Sanjeev Kumar of High Court of J&K and Ladakh reprimands Courts and Juvenile Justice boards for disclosing full identity and address of the juveniles in their orders being in violation of Section 74 of Juvenile Justice Act, 2015.

The remarks, as per Courtroom Updates, were made by Justice Sanjeev Kumar while dealing with a revision petition under Sec 102 JJ Act, 2015 filed by a juvenile. The court took a serious note of the fact that the Juvenile Board and the Appellate court has failed to maintain secrecy as to the identity of the Juvenile. The court observed that it is high time that the courts in both the UTs are made aware of the provisions of Section 74 of the Act of 2015 and the law laid down by the Supreme Court from time to time.

The court also observed that the vulnerability of a child is an attribute of a childhood which is well recognized by the Act of 2015.

The aim of the legislatures and the endeavour of the courts is to insulate the child against the cruel vagaries of life which it cannot comprehend and lacks capacity to defend against.

Some measures like restricted access to records of trials, sealing and destruction of records of prosecution of juvenile delinquents are finding acceptability among legislatures across the world.

The Courts have been anonymising trials of children in conflict with law to protect their identities. The prime aim and object of Section 74 of the Act of 2015 is to avoid scrutiny of the proceedings in which a juvenile is tried to insulate and protect the juvenile from stigma and emotional trauma.

The court also relied upon the Judgment of the Supreme Court passed in “Shilpa Mittal v. State (NCT of Delhi) and anr, (2020) 2 SCC 787”.

The court further directed the Registrar General to circulate the order to ensure that the name and address of the children in conflict with law are not disclosed or mentioned in the cause lists or elsewhere in the record.