Juvenile Delinquency Case: Advocate Aashish Adhikari on behalf of Bablu Godia v. Banke District Court et al, Writ no. 3390 of the year 2057 BS, Date of Decision: 2057/12/12 BS.
Case: Writ of habeas corpus
Plaintiff: Advocate Aashish Adhikari on behalf of Bablu Godia
Respondent: Banke District Court et al
Writ no: 3390 of the year 2057
This case is related to detention of juvenile in adult prison.
Facts of the case:
A charge sheet was filed against the petitioner Mr. Bablu Godia (aged 14 at the time of offence) and other persons for committing an offence referred in No. 6 of the country code chapter on theft. The Banke District court & Nepalgunj Appellate Court found him guilty & was placed in the adult prison facility and kept indiscriminately together with adult offenders.
Following a prior Supreme Court verdict directing his transfer to a Child Reform Home, he was removed from the adult jail but was instead placed into an even more difficult detention cell because a proper Reform Home was not functioning. As a result, a fresh writ petition of Habeas Corpus was filed in the Supreme Court on his behalf. The writ petition was filed pursuant to Articles 23 and 88(2) of the constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal, 2047 (1990).
Legal issues:
- Whether detaining a juvenile (a child under 16 years of age) indiscriminately in a regular prison alongside adult offenders violates the protections guaranteed under domestic child rights legislation and international conventions?
- Whether the state is legally obligated to immediately establish and place children in conflict with the law into specialized Child Reform Homes rather than adult prisons or substandard detention cells?
Decision of the courts:
Supreme Court:
The Supreme Court ruled against the respondents, explicitly condemning the practice of keeping the child in an adult jail facility with adult criminals. The Supreme Court issued an order to the Government to immediately transfer the juvenile detainee to a Child Reform Home.
The Court ruled that if a proper reform facility does not exist, the Government must make necessary arrangements to establish one immediately.
Principles Established:
- Children in conflict with the law cannot be treated as adult offenders or mixed with adult prison populations. They must be kept in separate, child-appropriate environments to avoid negative psychological impacts and criminal contamination.
- The government cannot use the absence of specialized institutional facilities (like reform homes) as an excuse to hold minors in adult jail facilities or regular detention cells. The state has an absolute legal duty to create and maintain the necessary infrastructure required to enforce the Act Relating to Children.
Relevance of the Case:
This landmark case domesticated international juvenile justice standards in Nepal, permanently prohibited mixing children with adult inmates and forced the state to build functioning Child Correction Homes (Bal Sudhar Griha).
Source: Baseline Survey on Juvenile Justice System In Nepal, 2010 {KSL JOURNAL}
