Strange Case Of ‘Juvenile Justice’ In UP’s Pilibhit: 53-Year-Old Sentenced For Crime Committed As A Kid

A strange case has been observed at the Juvenile Justice Board court in Pilibhit, Uttar Pradesh.

A 53-year-old ‘juvenile’ has been sentenced to three years of community service in which he has been asked to clean the district hospital for the said period, says a Times of India report.

His crime: When a minor, he murdered a man who had taken on his grandfather. While the ‘juvenile’, got bail after five months in jail despite being sentenced to life imprisonment, he later married and had a full family life with three sons and three daughters.

The man used to sell vegetables for a livelihood. The order, however, has taken 38 years of painful waiting to come through. His lawyer, Vivek Pandey, however, is not impressed with the verdict. He says the court, while mandating community service, has not bothered to ensure fair terms of service such as a weekly off during the hospital duty as well as a humane lunch break in the seven-hour shift.

The order is being reviewed as it also does not provide for payment for the community service rendered as part of the mandate.

However, Avadhesh Chandra Mishra, a criminal lawyer in Pilibhit, said that the verdict only showed that our criminal justice system did believe in the basic power to reform rather than just punish, and is a powerful acknowledgement of the intrinsic goodness in human nature.