Courts Must Decide Appeals Concerning Juveniles On Merits Without Going Into Technicalities Of Limitation To Impart Justice: P&H HC

“Admittedly, the petitioner was already declared as child in conflict with law by the Court concerned. Even at present the petitioner is stated to be less than 18 years of age. It is the duty of the Court to impart justice and the Court of Additional Sessions Judge, Sonepat should have decided the matter in question on merits without going into hyper technical ground of limitation, while keeping in mind the fact that the petitioner is a juvenile”, observed a bench of Justice Karamjit Singh.

Advocate Sarfraj Anjum Mor appeared for the petitioner and DAG Naveen Sheoran appeared for the State of Haryana.

In the revision petition, filed by the petitioner under Section 102 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2015 read with Section 482 CrPC challenged the order dated March 14, 2023, passed by the Court of Additional Sessions Judge, Sonepat (acting as a Children Court).

The Court had dismissed an appeal filed by the petitioner against an order dated August 24, 2022, passed by Juvenile Justice Board, Sonepat for being time-barred.

It was stated that the petitioner is a child in conflict with law but the Principal Magistrate of the Juvenile Justice Board wrongly passed the order to conduct the trial by treating the petitioner as an adult.

It was further submitted that the petitioner is 17 years of age and is not conversant with the technicalities of law and due to some misunderstanding, failed to file the appeal within the prescribed period of limitation of 30 days. The petitioner filed an appeal on October 7, 2022.

Therefore, it was urged that the delay was such that could have been easily condoned by the Court concerned while taking into consideration the fact that the petitioner is a minor.

The counsel for the State though resisted, however, agreed that the matter should have disposed of on merits and not on technical grounds of limitation.

Resultantly, while allowing the petition and setting aside the order, the bench remanded the matter back to the Court of Additional Sessions Judge, Sonepat to decide the same afresh on merits without insisting on the point of limitation. The parties are directed to appear before the Court concerned on July 4, 2023.

Cause Title: Mohd. Israr v. State of Haryana [Neutral Citation No: 2023:PHHC:081203]