Calcutta High Court (Appellete Side)
Raj Kumar Mondal @ Rajkumar Mondal vs Unknown on 19 December, 2024
01
19-12-2024
(ct. no. 29)
KOLE
CRM (DB) 2892 of 2024
In re: An application for bail under Section 439 of the Code of Criminal
Procedure/Section 483 of the BNSS in connection with Sagarpara
Police Station Case No. 220 of 2023 dated 22.07.2023 under
Sections 376/511/323/506 of the Indian Penal Code and
Sections 8/12 of the POCSO Act.
-And-
In the matter of : Raj Kumar Mondal @ Rajkumar Mondal
.... Petitioner.
Mr. Soumik Ganguly,
Mr. Tapodip Gupta,
... For the Petitioner.
Mr. Iqbal Kabir,
Mr. Aslam Parvez,
... For the State.
Mr. Arnab Chatterjee,
Mr. A. Rahaman,
....for the defacto complainant.
Order dictated by Arijit Banerjee, J.:
1. The report of the Judge, Special POCSO Court,
Berhampore, Murshidabad dated December 10, 2024 has been
placed before us. From the said report as also from the order dated
September 2, 2023, we find that there is no dispute that on the
date of the commission of the alleged offence the petitioner was
aged 17 years 10 months 26 days i.e., on the date of commission of
the offence, he was a JCL (juvenile in conflict with law). Hence, the
Special POCSO Court ought not to have taken up the matter.
Instead, the Court ought to have sent the matter to the Juvenile
Justice Board in terms of Section 15 of the Juvenile Justice (Care
and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 for conducting a preliminary
assessment with regard to the JCL’s mental and physical capacity
to commit the alleged offence, and ability to understand the
2
consequences of the offence and the circumstances in which he
allegedly committed the offence. This was admittedly not done.
2. Hence, we dispose of this application by directing the
Special POCSO Court to send the matter to the Juvenile Justice
Board for conducting a preliminary assessment as contemplated by
Section 15 of the POCSO Act and then take up the matter from
there depending on the report of the Juvenile Justice Board.
3. The matter shall be sent to the Juvenile Justice Board
within seven days from the date of communication of this order by
the parties to the learned Trial Court.
4. The Board is requested to complete the exercise of
conducting preliminary assessment within 15 days from the receipt
of the matter from the learned Trial Court.
5. CRM (DB) 2892 of 2024 is, thus, disposed of.
6. All parties shall act in terms of server copy of the order
downloaded from the official website of this Court.
( Apurba Sinha Ray, J. ) ( Arijit Banerjee, J. )