The Supreme Court recently pointed out that no time limit has been prescribed under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 to prefer an appeal against the preliminary assessment order of the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) and deemed it appropriate to fill up the gap by prescribing 30 days’ time limit for preferring appeal against the JJB’s preliminary assessment order.
The court mentioned that neither any time has been fixed for filing the appeal nor any provision is provided for condonation of delay in case where the appeal is sought to be preferred under Section 101(2) of the JJ Act against the JJB’s preliminary assessment order passed under Section 15(1). The bench of Justice C.T. Ravikumar and Justice Rajesh Bindal sought to fill up the gap by prescribing a 30 days’ time limit which otherwise does not go against the scheme of the Act.
The court remarked that in order to make the Act workable and putting timelines for exercise of statutory right of appeal which always is there, the bench deemed it appropriate to fill up this gap, which otherwise does not go against the scheme of the Act. Therefore, for the period for filing of appeal in Section 101(2), the court takes guidance from Section 101(1) of the Act, the bench continued. The court added that the period provided for filing the appeal therein is 30 days and in case sufficient cause is shown the power to condone the delay has also been conferred on the appellate authority. The court clarified that the timeline has also been provided for decision of appeal.
The Section 101(1) of the JJ Act grants a 30-day time limit for preferring an appeal before the children’s court against the order made by the Committee or the Board. Nonetheless, Section 101(2) of the JJ Act does not prescribe any time limit for preferring an appeal against the JJB preliminary assessment order. The Section 101(2) states that an appeal shall lie against an order of the Board passed after making the preliminary assessment into a heinous offence under section 15 of the Act, before the Court of Sessions and the Court may, while deciding the appeal, take the assistance of experienced psychologists and medical specialists other than those whose assistance has been obtained by the Board in passing the order under the said section.
Subsequently, considering Section 101(1) of the Act, the court ordered a 30-day time limit for filing an appeal under Section 101(2) of the Act against the decision of the JJB preliminary assessment order.