Section 14 in Bihar Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Rules, 2015
14. Enquiry.
(1)The Board shall take the following steps to ensure fair and speedy inquiry, namely:-(a)at the time of initiating the inquiry, the Board shall satisfy itself that the juvenile in conflict with law has not been subjected to any ill-treatment by the police or by any other person, including a lawyer or probation officer and take corrective steps in case of such ill- treatment;(b)in all cases under the Act the proceedings shall be conducted in as simple a manner as possible and care shall be taken to ensure that the juvenile, against whom the proceedings have been instituted, is given child-friendly atmosphere during the proceedings;(c)Every juvenile brought before the Board shall be given the opportunity to be heard and participate in his inquiry;(d)Cases of petty offences, if not disposed off by the Special Juvenile Police Unit or at the police station itself, may be disposed of by the Board through summary proceedings or inquiry within one month, while in cases of serious offences entailing punishment of 7 years or more, due process of inquiry in detail may follow;(e)Even in cases of inquiry pertaining to serious offences the Board shall follow the procedure of trial in summons cases.(2)When witnesses are produced for examination in inquiry relating to a juvenile in conflict with law, the Board shall keep in mind that the inquiry is not to be conducted in the spirit of strict adversarial proceedings and it shall use the powers conferred by Section 165 of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 (1 of 1872) so as to question the juvenile and proceed with the presumptions that favour the juveniles right to be restored.(3)While examining a juvenile in conflict with law and recording his statement, the Board shall address the juvenile in a child-friendly manner in order to put the juvenile at ease and to encourage him to state the facts and circumstances without any fear, not only in respect of the offence of which the juvenile is accused, but also in respect of the home and social surroundings and the influence to which the juvenile might have been subjected.(4)The record of the examination shall be in such form as the Board may consider suitable having regards to contents of the statement and circumstances in which it was made.(5)The Board may take into account the report of the police containing circumstances of apprehension and offence alleged to have been committed and the social investigation report in Form IV prepared by the Probation officer or the voluntary organization on the orders of the Board as per Form III, along with the evidence produced by the parties for arriving at a conclusion about the juvenile.(6)Every inquiry by the Board shall be completed within a period of four months from the date of commencement of the case and only in exceptional cases involving transnational criminality, large number of accused and inordinate delay in production of witnesses, the period of inquiry may be extended by two months on recording of reasons by the Board.(7)In all other cases except where the nature of alleged offence is serious, delay beyond four to six months shall lead to the termination of the proceedings.(8)Where the proceedings are delayed beyond six months on account of serious nature of the offence alleged to have been committed by the juvenile, the Board shall send a periodic report of the case to the District Judge stating the reason for delay as well as steps being taken to expedite the matter.
