Juvenile has a statutory right to bail under the Juvenile Justice Act, compelling courts to facilitate release unless exceptional reasons justify denial.

Order

02/07/2025 An application (Inward No.01/25) for preponment of the date has been filed by the counsel for the petitioner.

For the reasons mentioned in the application, the same is hereby allowed.

Heard learned counsel for the petitioner (juvenile- through his natural guardian mother Mangi Devi) as well as learned Public Prosecutor on the revision petition.

The allegation against the petitioner is of offence under Section 8/15 of NDPS Act. The bail application filed by the petitioner under Section 12 of the Act of 2015 before Principal Magistrate, Juvenile Justice Board, Bikaner was rejected vide order dated 04.06.2025. Being aggrieved by the said order, an appeal was filed by the petitioner before the learned Children Court (Sessions Judge), Bikaner and the same has been dismissed by learned Appellate Court vide impugned order dated 06.06.2025.

Being aggrieved of the orders dated 04.06.2025 and

06.06.2025 passed by the Courts below, the petitioner has preferred this revision petition before this Court.

Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that the recovered contraband is below commercial quantity and no other criminal antecedent against the present petitioner and the petitioner has been in custody since long and trial of the case will take sufficient long time. Learned counsel for the petitioner vehemently submitted that petitioner was below 18 years of age on the date of incident occurred and there is no evidence to show that if the juvenile-petitioner is released on bail, then his release is likely to bring him into association with any known criminal, or expose them to moral, physical or psychological danger, or that his release would defeat the ends of justice. It is argued that learned Courts below have not appreciated the fact that the petitioner is juvenile and entitled to get benefit of provisions of the Act of 2015. Section 12 of the Act of 2015 clearly provides that if the accused is juvenile, then he should be released on bail, but learned Courts below fully ignored the provisions of the Act of 2015. The petitioner has been in custody since long time and no further detention of the petitioner is required for any purpose. Learned counsel for the petitioner further submitted that the gravity of the offence committed cannot be a ground to decline bail to a juvenile.

On the other hand, learned Public Prosecutor defended the impugned order passed by the Juvenile Justice Board in declining the bail to the petitioner as also the judgment passed by the Appellate Court upholding the order passed by the Juvenile Justice Board.

I have carefully considered the submissions made by the learned counsel for the parties and also perused the provisions of the Act of 2015.

The language of Section 12 of the Act of 2015 conveys the intention of the Legislature to grant bail to the juvenile, irrespective of nature or gravity of the offence, alleged to have been committed by him and bail can be denied only in the case where there appears reasonable grounds for believing that the release is likely to bring him into association with any known criminal, or expose him to moral, physical or psychological danger, or that his release would defeat ends of justice.

In this context, I have also scanned through and perused the orders passed by the courts below.

Having carefully examined provisions of the Juvenile Justice Act vis-a-vis the orders passed by the courts below, I do not find that any of the exceptional circumstances, to decline bail to a juvenile, as indicated in Section 12 of the Act of 2015, is made out.

In view of the aforesaid discussion, this revision petition is allowed and the order dated 04.06.2025 passed by the Principal Magistrate, Juvenile Justice Board, Bikaner as well as order dated 06.06.2025 passed by learned Children Court (Sessions Judge), Bikaner declining bail to the petitioner are hereby set aside.

It is ordered that the juvenile accused-petitioner “M” S/o Shri Ram Lal, shall be released on bail in FIR No.90/202