Preventive Policing of Juveniles in Mass Protests: An Approach Centred at Best Interests of Child

Abstract

The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 mandates for differential treatment of juveniles in contact with the police. Provided that their apprehension could take place merely with respect to an alleged offence. A “child in conflict with law” is defined as a child below 18 years of age who is alleged or found to have committed an offence under Section 2(13) of the JJ Act, 2015. While the Section 10 and 12 regulate the apprehension on that footing of alleged offence and Section 22 prohibits proceedings for security for keeping peace to be done against children yet the preventive arrest under Section 170 of BNSS, 2023 and the crowd control and dispersal measures under Section 148, 163 and 172 do operate on the persons (here children) upon whom no offence has yet been alleged. The paper delves into this very issue of apprehension of children upon whom no offence has yet been alleged and resultantly they lie outside the purview of apprehension safeguards provided in the act including the bar on their detention in police lock ups. And this statutory gap combined with the weak implementation exposes the children at protests to the adult policing framework contrary to the principle of best interests of the child. Using the doctrinal analysis through the JJ Act, BNSS and UNCRC along with the quantitative analysis through public perception survey and drawing comparative jurisprudences from United States and United Kingdom, the paper tries to provide recommendations and protest policing framework through Special Juvenile Police Units that tend to protect the best interests of child while preserving the public order of the State through non custodial and least restrictive measures.