Fourth Offence under the Juvenile Justice Act 2015: A new addition by Shilpa Mittal vs. State of NCT of Delhi

Abstract

The Juvenile Justice Act of 2015 introduced the classification of offences in such a

manner which hitherto was not a known concept. The Act categorised the offences into

three parts which included- petty, serious and heinous offences and the provisions also

detailed the manner in which the inquiry into these shall be held when a child in conflict

with law is apprehended. However, when the Act came into force, the jurists argued that

the legislature has left a loophole in the classification of offences so made and a fourth

category of offences have been left out. Thereafter, in some cases it was argued that the

left out offences can be dealt in under the category of ‘heinous offence’ but the High

Courts of Bombay, Patna and Punjab and Haryana rejected the contention. Recently,

while approving the view taken by these High Courts, the Supreme Court has filled in

the gap in Shilpa Mittal vs. State of NCT of Delhi, (2020) 2 SCC, 787, where the Court

has held that till the legislature acts upon the matter, fourth category offences shall be

treated as ‘serious offences’ within the meaning of the Act. The present article discusses

the view taken by the Supreme Court in Shilpa Mittal.