Pune porsche accident: As the outrage in the Porsche hit-and-run case intensifies, the Pune Police approached the Juvenile Justice Board seeking review of its previous order which granted bail to the accused, who is a minor in this case, in connection with the May 19 incident in which two people were knocked down by his car in Pune. He was allegedly driving the car in an inebriated state in the Kalyani Nagar area in the early hours of Sunday.
The police, in their application, urged the Board, which allowed the boy to walk free by imposing some bail conditions, to review its earlier decision and try the boy as an adult. The police moved a review plea under section 104 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) Act urging that the minor be tried as an adult as he committed a heinous crime.
"The CCL (Child in Conflict with Law) will write an essay of 300 words on the topic of road accidents and their solutions," the earlier order read.
Now that the police seek to try the teen as an adult, let’s take a look at how it can be done.
How can a Juvenile be tried as an adult?
The National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has established specific guidelines for the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) to follow when conducting an initial assessment under Section 15 of the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015 (JJ Act, 2015). The guidelines aim to determine if the accused could be treated as a minor or an adult in the trial. The purpose of the preliminary assessment is to ascertain whether the minor is capable of undergoing trial as an adult.
How to determine the age of the Juvenile?
According to the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015, a child is defined as a person who has yet not touched the age of 18 years. As per the JJ Act, juveniles between the age of 16 to 18 years, who are indulgent in grave crimes, can be tried as adults.
Section 15 of the JJ Act mandates that the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) conduct a preliminary assessment of the child's mental and physical capacity to commit the serious crime. This assessment is essential to determine whether the child is sixteen years of age or older.
How to define heinous crimes?
According to the Section 2(33) of the JJ Act 2015, ‘heinous offences’ are those crimes for which there is a minimum punishment of seven years imprisonment or more in the Indian Penal Code or any other law.
What is the need for preliminary assessment?
There are two important conditions necessitating a preliminary assessment – the crime falls under the Act’s classification of heinous crimes, and the Juvenile has to be in between the age of 16 and 18 years. In the Porsche accident case, the accused is 17 years of age.
The JJB is exclusively responsible for conducting preliminary assessments, which must be finished within three months from the date the accused is first brought before it. If the Board determines that the child should be tried as an adult, the case is then transferred to the Children’s Court.
Porsche accident case
The accident in Pune took place in the early morning on May 19. The Board’s decision to grant the youngster bail on the same day while asking him to write an essay on road accidents drew massive criticism on social media.
The youngster, son of a real estate developer, was drunk at the time of the accident, police claimed on May 20. A case was registered against him under section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder ) of the Indian Penal Code and sections of the Motor Vehicles Act.
A group of friends were returning on motorbikes around 3.15 am on Sunday after a party when a speeding luxury car hit one of the motorcycles at Kalyani Nagar junction. The two riders — Anis Awadhiya and Ashwini Costa — died of their injuries.
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