[1] IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE FOR RAJASTHAN AT JAIPUR BENCH, JAIPUR O R D E R S.B. CRIMINAL REVISION PETITION NO. 363/2008 RAVI KUMAR Vs. STATE OF RAJASTHAN DATE: 23.04.2008 HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE K.S. RATHORE Mr. Biri Singh for the accused-petitioner. Mr. B.S. Chhaba, Public Prosecutor for the State. **** The present criminal revision petition under Section 53 of the Juvenile Justice (Care & Protection of Children) Act, 2000 (for short 'the Act of 2000') is directed against the order dated 20.03.2008 passed by the District & Sessions Judge, Jhalawar in Criminal Misc. Bail Application No. 224/2008, whereby the Appellate Court dismissed the bail application of the petitioner filed against the order dated 11.03.2008 passed by the Principal Magistrate, Juvenile Justice Board, Jhalawar in FIR No. 48/2008 registered at Police Station Bhawani Mandi, District Jhalawar for the offence under Section 8/21 of the NDPS Act, by which the Court below rejected the bail/custody application moved by the petitioner through his father. Brief facts of the case are that FIR No. 48/2008 was registered at Police Station Bhawani Mandi, District Jhalawar by one Virdhi Chand Gurjar on 02.02.2008 for the offence under Section 8/21 of the NDPS Act against the petitioner and one Jahid [2] Khan. It was also alleged that on 02.02.2008 at 11.00 p.m., complainant Virdi Chand along with his companions recovered NDPS articles weighing 1 Kg. each from the petitioner and Jahid, for which they were not having any licence. The petitioner and the co-accused were arrested on 02.02.2008 and sent to judicial custody. As the petitioner was juvenile at the time of the incident, his father Shri Radheyshyam moved an application before the Special Judge, NDPS Cases, Jhalawar on 05.02.2008 for trying his case by the Juvenile Court and the same was accepted by the Court below on 26.02.2008. Thereafter the petitioner through his guardians moved bail/custody application before the Principal Magistrate, Juvenile Justice Board, Jhalawar as per the provisions of Section 12 of the Act of 2000 and the same was rejected vide order impugned dated 11.03.2008. Against the said order dated 11.03.2008, the petitioner moved bail application before the District & Sessions Judge, Jhalawar and that too came to be dismissed vide order impugned dated 20.03.2008. Against the aforesaid orders dated 11.03.2008 and 20.03.2008 passed by the Courts below, the petitioner has preferred the instant criminal revision petition. Both the Courts below refused to grant bail to the accused-petitioners looking to the seriousness and nature of the offence. [3] Learned counsel for the accused-petitioner referred Section 12 of the Juvenile Justice (Care & Protection of Children) Act, 2000 (for short 'the Act of 2000') which deals with bail of juvenile and the same reads as under:- 12. Bail of Juvenile.- (1) When any person accused of a bailable or non-bailable offence, and apparently a juvenile, is arrested or detained or appears or is brought before a Board, such person shall, notwithstanding anything contained in the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (2 of 1974) or in any other law for the time being in force, be released on bail with or without surety but he shall not be so released if there appear reasonable grounds for believing that the release is likely to bring him into association with any known criminal or expose him to moral, physical or psychological danger or that his release would defeat the ends of justice. (2) When such person having been arrested is not released on bail under sub-section (1) by the Officer-in-charge of the police station, such officer shall cause him to be kept only in an observation home in the prescribed manner until he can be brought before a Board. (3) When such person is not released on bail under sub- section (1) by the Board it shall, instead of committing him to prison, make an order sending him to an observation home or a place of safety for such period during the pendency of the inquiry regarding him as may be specified in the order. As per sub-section (1) of Section 12 of the Act of 2000, if any person accused of a [4] bailable or non-bailable offence, and apparently a juvenile, is arrested or detained or appears or is brought before a Board, such person shall, notwithstanding anything contained in the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (2 of 1974) or in any other law for the time being in force, be released on bail with or without surety but he shall not be so released if there appear reasonable grounds for believing that the release is likely to bring him into association with any known criminal or expose him to moral, physical or psychological danger or that his release would defeat the ends of justice. So far as reasonable grounds for any physical or psychological danger or that his release would defeat the ends of justice, learned counsel for the accused-petitioner submits that there is no such report submitted and upon perusal of the order impugned by which bail has been refused to the petitioner, it has been observed that there is quite apprehension that the petitioner can come into the contact of the known criminal doing the smuggling of smack if he is released on bail, therefore, bail was refused to the petitioner. Learned counsel for the petitioner in support of his submissions placed reliance on the judgment rendered by the Co-ordinate Bench of this Court in the case of Mata @ Manohar Singh Vs. State of Rajasthan, reported in RLW 1996(1) Raj. 372, [5] wherein dealing with the Juvenile Justice Act it has been observed that revision should be under Section 38 of the Act- Section 18- Provision for bail- Both the lower courts refused bail to the delinquent juvenile on the ground of nature and seriousness of the offence- The procedure for bail granted in the Act is extraordinary- Act is curative and reformative-- The grounds refusing bail are hardly relevant in such cases- Section 18 explained- revision allowed and bail granted with conditions. He further placed reliance on the judgment rendered by this Court in the case of Imtiyaz Vs. State of Rajasthan, reported in 2005(2) Cr.L.R. (Raj.) 1197, wherein this Court has held that at the time of consideration of bail, merit or nature of offence has no relevancy- Word used 'shall' in Section 12 is mandatory- Intention of legislature is clear to grant bail to delinquent- Report of probation officer show that his sister was abducted, petitioner got enraged and fired one gun shot- death of one person- no bad antecedent of the petitioner is found- offence under Section 302- bail granted. While dealing with Section 12 of the Act of 2000 in the case of Imtiyaz (supra), it was observed that a delinquent juvenile ordinarily has to be released on bail irrespective of nature of offence alleged to have been committed by him, [6] unless it is shown by evidence that if he is released on bail, there appear reasonable grounds for believing that the release of delinquent juvenile is likely to bring him into association with any known criminal or expose him to moral, physical or psychological danger or that his release would defeat the ends of justice. Having heard learned counsel for the accused-petitioner, learned Public Prosecutor for the State and having gone through the provisions of Section 12 of the Act of 2000 and the judgments referred before me, now the only crucial aspect is to be seen whether on release of the petitioner on bail, as observed by the Courts below that his release will likely to bring him into association with any known criminal or expose him to moral, physical or psychological danger or that his release would defeat the ends of justice, I deem it proper to remand the matter back to the Court below to reconsider these aspects and the observations which are made and the accused-petitioner is given liberty to move application under Section 12 of the Act of 2000 afresh before the Principal Magistrate, Juvenile Justice Board, Jhalawar and the Principal Magistrate shall give the reasoning as to on what basis observations are made that in case the accused-petitioner is released on bail, his release would likely to bring him into association with any known criminal or expose him to moral, physical or [7] psychological danger or that his release would defeat the ends of justice and after giving the reasons shall consider the bail application of the accused-petitioner afresh and shall pass fresh order. With these observations, the present criminal revision petition stands disposed of and the order impugned dated 11.03.2008 passed by the Principal Magistrate, Juvenile Justice Board, Jhalawar and the order impugned dated 20.03.2008 passed by the District & Sessions Judge, Jhalawar are hereby quashed and set-aside. (K.S. RATHORE),J. /KKC/ [8]