New Delhi, Nov 16, 2011: In New Delhi, the Asian Centre for Human Rights in its fact finding report on Kashmir has said that a large number of children were detained under the draconian law, Public Safety Act during the uprising in 2010. The report deplored that the Act provided preventive detention for up to two years without producing a person to a court of law. The report mentioned that juveniles in Kashmir were being denied access to justice and benefits of the special protection to the minors.
The Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR) reports has said that “the Jammu and Kashmir authority of illegally detaining minors under the draconian law, Public Safety Act (PSA) that provides for preventive detention of up to two years.
Delhi based human rights watchdog, ACHR has said in the absence of a proper juvenile justice system, the administration in Kashmir has been flouting rules in dealing with minors.
Releasing a report based on a study conducted by its team related to the assessment of the prevailing juvenile justice system in Jammu and Kashmir, ACHR director Suhas Chakma the girl prisoners were sharing space in jails and police lock-ups with mail inmates. Out of the 51cases of juvenile justice examined by the fact-finding committee, nine related to girls, out of which two were categorises as in need of care.
“J&K government has been illegally detaining minors,” Chakma said and added the arrests of dozens of juveniles during the mass agitation in Valley from June to September 2010 brought the abuse of PSA against the children in conflict with the law, into focus.
He said while, school certificates are used to determine the age of a juvenile, that is not the practice in J&K. “The J&K Police in all cases argue that those detained are adults.”
He said J&K Police has been fond of applying the PSA and they seldom invoke the Jammu and Kashmir Juvenile Justice Act, 1997. “Consequently, juveniles are denied access to justice and benefits of the special protection provided under the 1997 JJA. The judiciary in Jammu and Kashmir is forced to intervene in every case to invoke the JJA”, he said.
Chakma said the only juvenile inmate home located in R S Pura (Jammu) also lacked basic amenities. On top of that the juveniles detained there were not being produced before the courts resulting in their illegal detention in contravention of the existing national laws and international obligations.
Quoting the instance of such an inmate, the team found that Fayaz Ahmed Bhat (25) resident of Gooripora (Ganderbal) was still being kept at the R S Pura centre. He was arrested in 2007 and was detained with adult prisoners for about three years in Srinagar Central jail.
Although the police had contended that Fayaz was an adult when he was picked up but the First Additional District and Sessions Judge, Srinagar in its order dated 12 March 2009, had declared him a juvenile on the date of commission of offence registered against him. “He is condemned to stay in the R S Pura Juvenile Home as both the judiciary and the state have no interest to ensure expeditious trial of his case registered 16 years back,” Chakma added.
Enlisting the findings of the fact-finding team, he said the authority in Kashmir has been illegally detaining an unspecified number of minors under PSA. A large number of juveniles have currently been placed in the general jails where many of them attained adulthood during the course of their detention due to a lax justice delivery system.
The study titled “Juveniles of Jammu and Kashmir: Unequal before the Law & Denied Justice in Custody” was conducted by ACHR after field visits to Srinagar, Budgam, Shopian, Pulwama, Islamabad, Kulgam, Ganderbal and Jammu districts from May to July 2010 followed up by updates.” source news agencies