JusticeMaker Garima Tiwari (right) and Ms. Nikhat Ali, an experienced lawyer, at the juvenile justice board in Bhopal, India.

A recent report in The Times of India highlighted that more than 35 juveniles in Bhopal alone are waiting for trial for serious crimes such as rape or murder. With absolutely no mechanism in place in the state to counsel such children so that they do not take to crime in future, juvenile homes seem to be at the bottom of the government’s priority list.

There are 18 observation homes in Madhya Pradesh with a capacity of 50 people each. As per the Juvenile Justice act 2000, the cases are disposed of by the juvenile justice board, which is comprised of a magistrate and two social workers. The Bhopal-based board is dysfunctional, since there is only one magistrate and no social workers on the jury. A magistrate comes twice a week to hear cases and record statements of the witness.

Keeping this in mind, I made a visit to the board. The court is held in one room where there are few chairs for advocates and court staff, but there is no place for juvenile offenders and their families to sit. There were no private advocates, and no social help groups to help them understand the procedures. Despite the chaos, the Magistrate was very cordial.

Most of the offenders were poor and illiterate, with no one to help them with the complex legal paper work.  With the help of advocate Nikhat Ali, who runs the non-governmental organization Muskaan and is also a Panel Advocate at the Juvenile Board, we were able to speed up the process of six matters in hearings held on 13^th March 2013.  Ms. Nikhat Ali is a highly experienced lawyer practising criminal law in Bhopal and is now a pillar of the JusticeMakers team.The matters concerned custody, warrant cancellation and compromise.

Sometimes poor, illiterate people fall into the trap of shrewd lawyers who  try to make money out of their ignorance. Somehow there are many people who  keep running around from lawyer to lawyer to get a solution to their problem, and they end up selling their land, house and all their possessions to pay for the whole legal procedure. Legal technicalities make these people suffer.

For instance, in one of the bail matters, a juvenile in conflict with the law had hired a private advocate who drafted the bail application.  There were no court stamps, affidavits or notarization as required on the application, and  the advocate charged high fees to the offender’s family . On top of this, the advocate did not appear on the date of hearing. When the court clerk informed these people that the application was drafted incorrectly, they were completely lost–they were very poor , illiterate and totally unaware of the legal procedure. They called the lawyer they had appointed, who said that he will re-draft the application but required more fees.

Because we were present there, we talked to the lawyer and asked him to return the money. Since there were issues of professional negligence involved, he conceded.  Such practices by lawyers is one of the factors which has caused a lot of mistrust in the criminal justice system.Ultimately, the party handed over the case to us and we filed the correct bail application. 

From drafting simple applications to compromise agreements, the day ended on a happy note, with many children in conflict with the law leaving with more trust in the legal process.

In addition, the LRF have prepared posters to inform the public on juveniles’ rights, specifically the mechanism of accountability under the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance 2000 which is intended to end torture of juveniles in prisons. Conscious of the credibility that ties with international organizations lend, the LRF have put an International Bridges to Justice (IBJ) and JusticeMakers logo on the poster. The posters are being displayed at police stations, and target not only police officers but also visitors and detainees.

The team spoke with various police-officials, including the chief officer, and asked them to fill out questionnaires. It quickly became evident that a number of them were unaware of the existence of any legal rights for juveniles.

Juvenile and women prisoners were being held at the same institution, and two of the cells at the Malir Courts District Jail were holding both adult male prisoners and juveniles. The team also met with inmates to hear views on the conditions they are subjected to. They complained about the behavior of two specific police-officers and the LRF have promised to take action.

LRF Chairman and 2008 JusticeMakers fellow, Malik Tahir Iqbal, chose to focus on one case in particular – that of a seventeen year old boy who was accused of alleged robbery. The child’s grandmother had filed a petition for the release of her grandson at the Malir Court in January of this year. The child had also been arrested for robbery in 2006, but then released on bail.According to the findings of the LRF team, the child was arrested late one night and was held at a police station, where he was subjected to mental and physical torture and sexual abuse – acts that constitute a gross violation of child and human rights, as outlined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and under Pakistan’s Juvenile Justice System Ordinance 2000. Neither his family nor his probation officer were informed of the arrest.

Although the child claimed that the allegations against him were false, he was told that if he did not confess to the crime, a video of him being abused and tortured would be distributed online. The video was recorded on a mobile phone, and then uploaded to the internet from a local cyber-café. The child’s family and friends say that this act constitutes an act of extortion and blackmail. His father, a wealthy man who has been working abroad in the UK, said that the family has already given money to numerous police officers in an attempt to end the circulation of the video.

At the press conference, the LRF team strongly recommended that a government appointed official conduct further investigation into this case and that the government of Pakistan ensure the future protection of the child and his family.