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Court observed that the entire assessment of the mental and physical fitness of the accused to be prosecuted as an adult was done within one day.
The Telangana High Court has recently set aside the decision of a Magistrate who found the juvenile accused persons in the Hyderabad Jubilee Hills gang rape case mentally and physically fit to be prosecuted as adults.
The bench of Justice G Anupama Chakravarthy observed that the entire assessment of accused persons was done within one day and proper reasons had not been assigned by the Magistrate for her such opinion.
"...proper reasons have not been assigned by the learned Magistrate as to how she has come to an opinion that they are able to understand the consequences of their acts," noted the court.
Court also highlighted that the Magistrate had deferred with the findings of the Juvenile Justice Board member and she had reached her conclusion after interacting with the accused persons herself.
Court, therefore, deemed it appropriate to remand the matter back to the court of the Magistrate for a fresh enquiry as per Rule 10(5) of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Model Rules, 2016.
"...the impugned order passed by the learned Magistrate, as well as the appellate Court, are hereby set aside and the matter is remanded back...for conducting fresh preliminary enquiry, after supplying copies of documents to the parties by 03.05.2023 and after giving opportunity to the CCLs as per aforesaid Rules," court ordered.
On May 28, 2022, a teenage girl was allegedly gang-raped at Hyderabad’s upmarket Jubilee Hills. On the girl’s complaint, five boys aged between 16 and 17 years were apprehended by the police along with the arrest of one 18-year-old man.
Allegedly, the accused had met the victim at a non-alcoholic party at a pub and later offered her a ride back home, however, on the way, at an isolated place, they raped the victim in a Toyota Innova car.
In her preliminary assessment order, the fifth Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court–cum-Principal Magistrate of Juvenile Justice Board, Hyderabad, found the four minors capable of understanding the consequences of their actions and ordered them to be treated as adults for prosecution. The order of the Magistrate was also confirmed by the Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge for the Trial of Cases under POCSO Sexual Offences, Hyderabad.
Case Title: MK v. State of Telangana
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