KATHMANDU, JULY 4
The Supreme Court has issued a writ of habeas corpus telling the defendants to release a 13-year-old boy accused of robbery from a child correction centre in Banke.
The order was passed by a Single bench of Justice Bishwambhar Shrestha in response to a writ petition filed by Public Defender Society of Nepal against Bardiya District Court and others.
Since there were three accused, including two adults who allegedly stole a motorcycle, the public prosecutor indicted the three accused under Section 244 (1d) of Muluki Criminal Code. Robbery carries a jail sentence ranging from five years to 10 years.
Executive Director of PDS Nepal Ajay Shankar Jha, who pleaded on behalf of the boy, said that the lower court had decided to send the boy to a child correction centre interpreting the existing legal provision that says that any crime that carries three years or more jail term is a grave crime.
"In the case of adult, this crime seems to be a grave crime as it carries jail term of more than three years but since the punishment for children is governed by the Children Act, it is a general crime because the boy is below 14 years and he could face a maximum jail term of only six months,"
Jha said and added that in this habeas corpus writ the court interpreted Section 36 (2) of the Children Act, which says that if a child is less than 14 years of age, he could be slapped up to six months imprisonment for a crime that carries jail term. Jha said that in accordance with the Children Act, the minor could not be liable to jail term if he/she has not committed a serious offence. "In this case, we argued that the indictment against the minor could not be interpreted as a serious offence," Jha said.
The SC said that it ordered to release the boy as the prosecutor did not claim that the juvenile committed grave or serious crime or he is a repeat offender. The court said that Bardiya District Court's order to send him to a correction home till the adjudication of the case was not in consonance with the law. The court ordered the defendants to hand over the child to his guardian.
A version of this article appears in the print on July 5, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.
