Full Judgment Text
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PETITIONER:
ABDUL MANNAN & ORS.
Vs.
RESPONDENT:
STATE OF WEST BENGAL
DATE OF JUDGMENT05/12/1995
BENCH:
RAMASWAMY, K.
BENCH:
RAMASWAMY, K.
FAIZAN UDDIN (J)
KIRPAL B.N. (J)
CITATION:
1996 AIR 905 1996 SCC (1) 665
1995 SCALE (7)259
ACT:
HEADNOTE:
JUDGMENT:
O R D E R
Leave granted.
This is an appeal against the order dated January 11,
1989 passed by the Calcutta High Court in Criminal Revision
No. 31 of 1989. In Sessions Case No.63A of 1981 on the file
of the Additional Sessions Judge, 11 persons including the
appellants are facing trial.
The appellants herein were charged for various offences
including the offence of murder punishable under Section
302, Indian Penal Code. Now it transpires that on the date
of the commission of the offence these appellants were under
the age of 17 and 18 years. Since they were children under
the provisions of the West Bengal Children Act, 1959 [for
short, "the Act"], they were required to be tried by the
Juveniles Court but no such court had been constituted.
Subsequently, pending proceedings Juvenile Justices Act,
1986 has come into force and the Act stood repealed. Even
under the Act, trial of the juvenile offenders requires to
be conducted by the Juveniles Court. Since no court has been
constituted even under the Central Act the necessary
consequences would be that the Sessions Judge had to conduct
the trial.
Contention was raised in the courts below that the
Additional Sessions Judge is not a Sessions Judge and that,
therefore, he could not proceed with the trial. The
contention was rejected and thus this appeal by special
leave against the impugned order dated January 11, 1989.
Section 9 [1] of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 [Act
21 of 1974] [for short, "the Code"] enjoins the State
Governments to establish a Court of Session for every
sessions division. It is made clear by sub-section [3] of
Section 9 which provides that Additional Sessions Judges may
be appointed by the High Court to exercise jurisdiction in a
Court of Session. Singular includes plural. Sessions Judge
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would include Additional Sessions Judge under the Code.
Therefore, he gets all the power and the jurisdiction of the
Sessions Judge to try the offences enumerated under the
Code. The Additional Sessions Judge, therefore, is competent
to proceed with the trial of the juvenile offenders. Even
though at the relevant time the appellants were juveniles,
by passage of time they no longer remained to be juvenile
offenders. They are now in mid thirties.
The object of the Juvenile Justice Act is to reform and
rehabilitate the juvenile offenders as useful citizens in
the society. In the facts and circumstances of the case, the
benefit of the Central Act was denied to them due to their
own act of keeping the trial pending by protracting
litigation kept the case pending trial and in the meanwhile
the appellants had crossed the age of the juvenile offenders
and became adults. We do not think it is a proper case for
our interference as no useful purpose under Central Act
would serve.
The appeal is accordingly dismissed.