Section 12 of Juvenile Justice Act 2015: Bail Of Juvenile [Case Laws]

Section 12 of Juvenile Justice (Care & Protection of Children) Act, 2015

Section 12 (Bail of juvenile) states that when any person accused of a bailable or a non-bailable offence and apparently a juvenile, is arrested or detained or is brought before a board then irrespective of the accusation he shall be released on bail or placed under the supervision of a probation officer or under the care of any fit institution or fit institution except when :-

1. if there appear reasonable grounds for believing that the release is likely to bring him into association with any known criminals or;

2. that it will expose him to moral, physical or psychological danger, or;

3. that his release would defeat the ends of justice.

Now, we will understand Section 12 in light of recent case laws and landmark cases.

Pradeep Kumar Vishwakarma vs State Of U.P [1]

Facts:

Juvenile, aged 17 Years 11 months (at the time of occurence of crime) was denied bail filed under section 12 of Juvenile Justice (Care & Protection of Children) Act, 2015 by the Sessions Judge Bhadohion criminal case arising out of Section 302 (murder).
Feeling aggrieved by the order of trial, the accused-appellant approached the High Court and said that the order is not sustainable in the eyes of law and is liable to be set aside directing the release of the accused-appellant in favour of appellant’s mother.
Prosecution submitted that in the statement of the informant, the father of the deceased recorded under Section 161 Cr.P.C., wherein he has stated that the juvenile used to tease his daughters and on being prevented many times, due to enmity, on the date of marriage of his two daughters, the accused-appellant had committed the murder of the deceased
The postmortem report of the deceased has been filed and from perusal of the same, it appears that the deceased died due to strangulation. The ligature (a thing used for tying or binding something tightly.) mark was found around his neck. But in the first information report, it has been written that when the informant reached on the place of occurrence, he found his son lying blood stained on the surface and he saw the juvenile running away from the place of occurrence.

Order Passed by the High Court:

The Court while comparing postmortem report and FIR found and said that the first information report version appears to be contradictory to the postmortem report in which neither any injury has been mentioned nor bleeding was found.
The High Court referred to the supreme court Judgment in Dr. Subramaniam Swamy vs Raju [2] (Landmark Case) that a juvenile has to be released on bail unless the court has a reasonable ground to believe that his release will bring him into association of some known criminal, or will expose him to moral, physical or psychological danger or his release would defeat the ends of justice. Therefore Court said that while rejecting the bail application of such juvenile, it cannot be the criteria that the alleged offence is of serious and heinous nature. The order must show that the grant of bail to the juvenile-accused is against his interest as there is possibility of his being associated with known criminals, or there is some short of moral, physical or psychological danger to him or there is likelihood of end of justice being defeated. All these conditions have been incorporated in law in order to ensure justice to the juvenile.
Hence, on the basis of these grounds Allahabad High Court granted bail to the accused (Juvenile) on the conditions mentioned in Dr. Subramaniam Swamy case and Section 12 of Juvenile Justice (Care & Protection of Children) Act, 2015 alongwith two sureties.