In a first, HC summons Mewat District & Sessions Judge, SP

Saurabh Malik

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Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 11

In an unprecedented order, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has summoned the Mewat District and Sessions Judge and Superintendent of Police after taking cognisance of the way a juvenile in conflict with law was dealt with by various courts.

The direction came in a case concerning a 16-year-old whose 21-year-old wife hanged herself, after which the teenager was in incarceration for nearly one year and three months.

Justice Fateh Deep Singh asserted that the court was disturbed over the manner in which various courts dealt with the child, quite in oblivion of the provisions of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, and the Rules framed under it.

Justice Fateh Deep Singh stated that the court was disturbed over the way the process was set in motion consequent upon the registration of an FIR without the matter being dealt with by juvenile police unit or welfare police official.

“This serious remiss that has come about impels this court to exercise its inherent powers under Section 482 of the CrPC to call upon the District and Sessions Judge, Mewat, and the Superintendent of Police, Mewat, to appear in person with a view that such a remiss which has serious repercussions on mental and physical health of a child in future does not occur repetitively,” Justice Fateh Deep Singh asserted.

The juvenile had filed an appeal in the High Court against the order dated April 2, passed by the Mewat Additional Sessions Judge, fast-track court for trial of rape cases, whereby his request for release on bail was declined in a case of subjecting a married woman to cruelty and her death registered on August 31 last year under Sections 498-A, 304-B and 34 of the IPC at the Nuh police station.

Justice Fateh Deep Singh observed that the state counsel’s own stand was that the woman was 21 years old when she got married and around 22 when the unfortunate occurrence took place.

Justice Fateh Deep Singh noted, “It was suggestive of apparent mismatching of the couple when the appellant was a kid and the girl a major.”

Justice Fateh Deep Singh further stated that the process of law regarding the appellant, a child in conflict with law, was not likely to be over in the near future.

Justice Fateh Deep Singh asserted that would subserve the ends of justice if the child was freed to enable his reintegration in society and the family and to bring about his monitoring and reformation.

“In the light of the same without further commenting, the present appeal is allowed and the appellant child is ordered to be released to the satisfaction of the court trying him,” Justice Fateh Deep Singh concluded.

Case file 

The 21-year-old wife of a 16-year-old hangs herself, after which the teenager is in incarceration for nearly one year and three months

Process set in motion consequent upon registration of FIR without matter being dealt with by juvenile police unit or welfare police official

‘Serious repercussions’ 

“This serious remiss that has come about impels this court to exercise its inherent powers under Section 482 of the CrPC to call upon the District and Sessions Judge, Mewat, and the SP, Mewat, to appear in person with a view that such a remiss  which has repercussions on mental and physical health of a child  in future does not occur.”— Justice Fateh Deep Singh, Punjab and Haryana High Court