The Supreme Court (SC), while dealing with the issue of whether the time period prescribed for conducting preliminary assessment of child-in-conflict with law (CCL) under Section 14(3) of Juvenile Justice (Care & Protection) Act, 2015 (JJ Act) is mandatory & failing which the CCL has to be tried as a juvenile by the Juvenile Justice Board, has held that since there is involvement of many persons i.e., investigating officer, experts in the proceedings & thereafter the proceedings before the Board, any party may be able to delay the proceedings, the time period cannot be held to be mandatory. The SC further noted that wherein the consequence of default in adherence to time period is not mentioned in the statute, the time period cannot be held to be mandatory.
