High Court Cancels Life Sentence of Minor Tried as Adult, Questions Raised on Juvenile Court Process

The Chhattisgarh High Court has rejected the life sentence given to a minor by considering him an adult. This decision was given by a division bench headed by Justice Sanjay K. Agarwal, in which the Supreme Court's 'Shilpa Mittal vs. Government of India' case has been cited. The court clarified that Section 307 (attempt to murder) of the IPC cannot be considered a heinous crime because it does not have a clear provision for a minimum sentence of 7 years.

What is the whole matter?
This case is from Korba district, where a 17-year-old teenager was accused of attempted murder (Section 307). The police presented the challan of the case to the Juvenile Justice Board. The board considered the age of the accused between 16 and 18 years and took the case in the category of heinous crime and after preliminary evaluation handed over the case to the Children's Court.

After this, the Children's Court tried the minor considering him an adult, and on 27 September 2017, he was sentenced to life imprisonment along with a fine of ₹ 2,000.

The juvenile appealed against this decision in the High Court. The appeal said that neither was he given a copy of the preliminary assessment report nor was he given a chance to present his views on the report. Apart from this, the Children's Court convicted him without conducting an independent investigation.

After the hearing, the High Court, citing the Shilpa Mittal case of the Supreme Court, said that Section 307 does not have a clear provision for a minimum sentence of 7 years, so it can be called a serious crime, but not a heinous crime. When the crime is not heinous, the case should have been heard by the Juvenile Justice Board and sending the case to the Children's Court was wrong. The court also said that the Children's Court sentenced him to life imprisonment without the possibility of release, which is a clear violation of the Juvenile Justice Act (Section 21).
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