 bill no 23 of  2018 the juvenile justice (care and protection of children) amendment bill, 2018 by shri chandrakant khaire, mp a billto amend the juvenile justice (care and protection of children) act, 2015be it enacted by parliament in the sixty-ninth year of the republic of india as follows:—short title and commencement1  (1) this act may be called the juvenile justice (care and protection of children)(amendment) act, 20182 after section 18 of the juvenile justice (care and protection of children) act, 2015, the following section shall be inserted, namely:—insertion of new section 15a"18a notwithstanding anything in this act, in case of an offence of murder, rape, sedition or terrorist activities alleged to have been committed by a child above the age of fourteen years, trial of such child shall be conducted as an adult"5child above the age of fourteen years who commits the offence of murder, rape, sedition or terrorist activities to be tried as an adult2 of 2016 statement of objects and reasonsthere is a need of a strict juvenile or child crime justice system in india from the legal point of view, juvenile crime is an illegal act perpetrated by a child below eighteen years of age who is presented before a children's court for legal action as per the juvenile justice (care and protection of children) act, 2015, a child between the age of sixteen to eighteen years is required to be tried as an adult for committing any serious or heinous offence subject to the provisions of this act the rate of child crimes is increasing day by day in indian society besides, its nature is getting complex day by day the reason behind such a phenomenon is urbanization and industrialization which has created such an environment wherein most of the families have become unsuccessful in controlling their children moral values are shattering due to rise in personal freedom and excess of competition has forced the children to go astrayjuveniles are now committing grave and heinous crimes such as rape, murder etc by taking resort to the fact they are juveniles they go scot free and again commit such crimes the main culprit of delhi's nirbhaya case was a juvenile and the person who raped a medical girl student of maulana azad medical college of delhi was a juvenile both these incidents are a blot on humanity and both the criminals are free today as they are juveniles and there is a chance that they may again be ready to commit such crimes so such crooked criminals should not get away just for the fact that they are juvenilesit must also be ensured that juvenile justice act provides benefits to the children wherein the methods of trial or grounds for parole are different children are just kept under observation children are thrown into organised crimes by criminals to take benefit from it this misuse of the act is done by the criminals by using children in committing crimes the misuse of the law will have to be stopped which has been enacted with good intenteven the supreme court bench sought to enquire from the central government whether the accused involved in such heinous crimes as murder, rape or abduction is allowed to go free only because of the fact that he is yet to attain eighteen years of age the apex court also observed that there should be a clear distinction between serious and less serious crimes perpetrated by the juvenile at present, juvenile justice board takes action against juveniles below eighteen years of age however, justice js verma committee constituted after the gang rape in delhi in december 2012 rejected the suggestion of decreasing the age of juvenile upto sixteen yearsinvolvement of juveniles continuously in heinous crimes is also a significant reasonin this context, national crime record bureau data makes it clear that there has been one hundred and fifty eight per cent increase in such cases of rapes by minors in delhi only it is surprising that as far as increase in general crimes by juvenile is concerned it is only thirty four per cent the more disturbing thing is that their involvement in the incidents of theft and dacoit has increased by two hundred per cent the juveniles involved in these crimes were from sixteen to eighteen years of age recent data disclose that more than thirty three thousand juveniles have been arrested in more than twenty five thousand incidents during the year 2012-13 out of which more than one thousand children were from seven to twelve years of age, eleven thousand children were in the age group of twelve to sixteen years and rest of the juveniles were in the age group of sixteen to eighteen years needless to say that today organized crime has taken the shape of an industry due to the ineffective criminal justice system as a matter of fact, a need to enact a separate law to deal with juvenile crimes was felt because the united nations issued a joint declaration for children rights wherein a child up to eighteen years of age was declared as a minorsecret sources reveal that at present a notorious terrorist organisation like lashkar-e-taiba has instructed its fighters to mention their age as below eighteen years if caught by security personnel of india it is certainly a big blot reflecting the failure of juvenile justice act of the country besides this, adult criminals connected with organised crimes are making gross misuse of this law this is the reason why the ministry has now concentrated on the crimes committed and their nature by juveniles not heeding to the matter of age of the juvenile the important fact is that children are at present becoming grownups at a very tender age because of influence of virtual media and cyber world it is turning out to be very dangerous to provide mobiles and internet facility to the children from a very early ageif we do not seriously ponder over these issues, there is every likelihood that organised and sexual crimes keep on flourishing hence, it is high time to take strict measures against juveniles who are committing heinous crimesthe bill, therefore, seeks to amend the juvenile justice (care and protection of children)act, 2015 with a view to provide that every child above the age of fourteen years alleged to have committed the offence of murder, sedition, rape and terrorist activities shall be tried as an adult and be punished accordinglyhence this billnew delhi;chandrakant khairedecember 8, 2017 lok sabha———— a bill to amend the juvenile justice (care and protection of children) act, 2015————(shri chandrakant khaire, mp)mgipmrnd—3710ls(s3)—24-01-2018