SC refuses plea on Kashmir 'minors'

Calcutta Telegraph: New Delhi: Saturday, 17 January 2015.

The Supreme Court today declined to hear a plea for the release of "thousands of Kashmiri juveniles" detained in the state's jails over stone-throwing incidents, saying the petitioner should move the high court instead.

Social worker Tanvi Ahuja, who filed the petition, alleged that thousands of juveniles had been arrested over the years under the Jammu & Kashmir Public Safety Act, 1978, (PSA) and the Ranbir Penal Code (equivalent to the IPC) instead of being tried under the State Juvenile Justice Act, 2013. The PSA allows judicial custody for two years without bail.

"These juveniles have been treated as adults, beaten, and put in jails, contrary to the numerous decisions of the Supreme Court holding that no juvenile should ever be put in a jail...(and)...ought to be held in juvenile-friendly institutions," the petition said.

The petitioner cited an RTI reply of March 2014 from the state home department which revealed that 707 FIRs had been filed against juveniles since 1988. Hurriyat leader Abdul Manan Bukhari had filed the RTI plea.

Ahuja's petition said that besides the PSA, the juveniles were booked under various other provisions - which include serious charges like rioting and attempt to murder - and sent to jail without proper trial.

Stone-throwing is frequent in the Valley, especially when clashes occur between the security forces and suspected militants.

Colin Gonzalves, the petitioner's senior counsel, told the bench of Chief Justice H.L. Dattu and Justice A.K. Sikri that despite the JJ Act, there were no juvenile justice boards in the entire state.

The alleged stone throwers were arrested, tortured, produced before magistrates and immediately remanded in police or jail custody. They remain in prison for fairly long periods of time and are ill-treated there, Gonzalves said, seeking a directive for the release of such minors and their rehabilitation in remand homes.

However, Justice Dattu said the petitioner should approach Jammu and Kashmir High Court, and dismissed the plea.