Unit 5: Legal Framework Relating to Juvenile Justice
5.1 National Legal Framework
5.1.1 The Constitution of Nepal
Article 39 (the rights of the child): identity and birth registration; upbringing and care; the labour bars (no factories, mines or hazardous work); the protection bars (no child marriage, trafficking, kidnapping or hostage-taking; no recruitment or use in army, police or armed groups); no torture or cruel treatment; and — the juvenile-justice clause — child-friendly justice for children in conflict with the law, with special protection for conflict-affected children and compensation for violations. Beside it, Article 20’s justice guarantees apply with the juvenile’s modifications (the presumption of innocence, counsel, the fair hearing), and Article 51’s policy of child protection frames the state’s duty.
5.1.2 The Children’s Act, 2048 B.S. (1992)
Nepal’s first consolidated child-law statute — the framework era’s foundation: the child’s definition and the State’s duties; the juvenile court provision (Section 55) — the statute’s own command to establish the juvenile court for children’s cases (the mandamus cases’ anchor — Unit 6); the reform-home provisions (Section 42) — s.42(1)’s duty to establish juvenile reform homes and s.42(3)’s placement discipline (the Bablu Godia holdings’ source); the child-welfare machinery; and the protective philosophy (the child’s best interests in every state action) that survives the statute’s partial supersession.
5.1.3 The Children’s Rules, 2051 B.S. (1995)
The 2048 Act’s implementation instrument: the child-welfare boards-and-committees’ architecture; the juvenile procedure’s early discipline; the care-home-and-monitoring faces — the rules that first operationalised the Act’s protective vocabulary (describe by effect, without rule numbers).
5.1.4 The Juvenile Justice (Procedure) Rules, 2063 B.S. (2006)
The juvenile process’s own rulebook (the pre-2075 era’s operational core): the juvenile bench’s formation — each district court’s bench of the district judge with the social activist/child specialist or child psychologist members (the multidisciplinary design; the appointments from the Supreme-Court-recommended lists); the child-friendly investigation
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