In Brief
A 16-year-old boy was convicted by the trial court for kidnapping, wrongful confinement, sexual abuse, and murder of a 6-year-old girl, and sentenced to multiple consecutive sentences. The Supreme Court held that the entire trial was vitiated because the mandatory procedural safeguards of the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015 were violated. The charge sheet was filed directly with the Sessions Court without first conducting a preliminary assessment by the Juvenile Justice Board to determine if the child should be tried as an adult—a mandatory requirement under Sections 15 and 19. Since the child's status was known from the outset, the procedural violations could not be cured retrospectively. The Court quashed the conviction and ordered the now-23-year-old appellant's immediate release from jail.
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