Judgment and Sentencing Questions and Answers

Answer: B

The timeframe is within 30 days, extendable to 45 days.

Section 258 of the BNSS requires the judgment in a sessions trial to be given as soon as possible after the arguments end, within thirty days of their completion, extendable to forty-five days for reasons recorded in writing. The provision is aimed at the long delay between arguments and judgment that the old Code allowed.

Fifteen days and ninety days are not periods the Sanhita sets for judgment, and the sixty-day figure confuses the rule with other BNSS time limits.

Answer: C

The order is (i) birth certificate from the school or matriculation certificate; (ii) birth certificate issued by the municipality; (iii) ossification test.

Section 94(2) of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 directs the Board or Committee to take evidence of age in this order: first, the date of birth certificate from the school or the matriculation or equivalent certificate; in its absence, the birth certificate given by a corporation, municipal authority or panchayat; and only in the absence of both, an ossification or other latest medical age determination test.

The other options reverse the first two documents, put the ossification test first, or add the Aadhaar card, which is not in the statutory list.

Answer: C

The Board may not sentence the child to imprisonment till he attains 18 years of age.

Section 18(1) of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 lists the orders a Juvenile Justice Board may pass after inquiry: advice or admonition, group counselling, community service, a fine, release on probation of good conduct, attendance at school or a vocational training centre, and placement in a special home for up to three years.

Imprisonment is not among them; the Act's whole scheme is reformative, and imprisonment is possible only after a Children's Court tries a child of 16-18 as an adult. Directing the child to attend school or a vocational centre and community service are all permitted orders.

Answer: D

The Board may transfer the case to the Children Court for trial of the child as an adult.

Section 15 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 requires a preliminary assessment of a child aged 16-18 alleged to have committed a heinous offence. If the Board concludes that the child should be tried as an adult, Section 18(3) lets it order the transfer of the trial to the Children's Court having jurisdiction to try such offences.

The Act does not use committal to a Court of Session, the Board itself does not try the child under the Code of Criminal Procedure, and there is no provision for returning the charge-sheet to the investigating officer.

Answer: B

The impermissible order is a direction under Section 12 that the conviction shall not have an adverse effect on his service.

Section 12 of the Probation of Offenders Act, 1958 itself provides that a person released under Section 3 or 4 shall not suffer any disqualification attaching to a conviction. It operates by force of law, and the Supreme Court has held that it removes only statutory disqualifications; it does not prevent an employer from taking disciplinary action, such as dismissal, on the basis of the conduct leading to the conviction. A court therefore cannot direct that the conviction shall not affect the offender's service.

The other orders are expressly authorised: admonition under Section 3, compensation and costs under Section 5, and release on bond for a period not exceeding three years under Section 4.

Answer: D

The answer is None of the above: the presumption applies in every one of these situations.

Section 3(i) of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 states the principle of presumption of innocence: any child shall be presumed to be innocent of any mala fide or criminal intent up to the age of eighteen years. The Act lays it down as a general principle, without an exception for the gravity of the offence.

A charge of murder or gang rape does not displace the presumption, and an order under Sections 15 and 18(3) that a child aged sixteen to eighteen be tried as an adult only changes the forum and procedure, not the child's entitlement to be presumed innocent until found guilty.

Answer: D

The trial court can send the child to a place of safety.

Under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, a child aged sixteen to eighteen accused of a heinous offence and ordered to be tried as an adult is not lodged in an adult jail. Section 49 requires each State to set up a place of safety for persons above eighteen and for such children, during inquiry and after conviction, and Section 19(3) keeps a child found in conflict with law in a place of safety until twenty-one.

Release after advice or admonition and release on probation are dispositions the Board can make under Section 18(1), not options in a trial as an adult, and crossing eighteen during the trial is no ground for dropping the proceedings.

Answer: B

The new maximum is 20 years.

When a person is convicted of several offences at one trial, the sentences may run consecutively, but the BNSS (section 25) provides that the aggregate imprisonment shall not exceed twenty years. Under section 31 of the old Code the ceiling was fourteen years, which is the trap in option A.

Twenty-four and thirty years are not limits found in either law.

Answer: C

The High Court shall commute the sentence to imprisonment for life.

Section 416 of the BNSS provides that if a woman sentenced to death is found to be pregnant, the High Court shall commute the sentence to imprisonment for life. Under the old Code, the High Court ordered execution to be postponed and could commute the sentence; the BNSS makes commutation to life mandatory.

Fourteen and twenty years are not the substituted sentence, and option D is wrong because the section expressly gives the High Court this duty.

Answer: C

Community service is court ordered work that benefits the community, and which is not entitled to any remuneration.

The Explanation to Section 23 of the BNSS defines community service as work which the Court may order a convict to perform as a form of punishment that benefits the community, for which he shall not be entitled to any remuneration.

It is ordered by the court as a sentence, not chosen voluntarily by the offender, and it is unpaid, so options A, B and D are wrong.