5 days ago
Sentencing juvenile to life imprisonment illegal, says Karnataka HC
BENGALURU: Stating that sentencing a juvenile to life imprisonment by wrongly treating him as an adult by a sessions court is illegal, the Karnataka High Court directed the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) to award Rs 50,000 compensation to him as per Rule 6 of the Karnataka State Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Rules, 2025. The accused spent 13 years in prison as against serving three years at a special home, the high court said.
The question of referring the case to JJB for awarding a sentence does not arise as he has undergone a sentence of graver measure, which has to be treated as subsumed under any sentence that could have been passed under Section 15 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act of 2000.
A division bench of Justices S Sunil Dutt Yadav and Ramachandra D Huddar passed the order, while disposing of an appeal filed by Channappa, who was a juvenile at the time of the murder of Bheemaraya in Yadgir district in 2011.
