Daughter of Cheranalloor accident victim files review petition before Kerala High Court

Bhadrakeerthi R.J., daughter of Jayabalakrishnan who died after a luxury car reportedly driven by the minor son of a judicial officer rammed his two-wheeler at Cheranalloor here on October 25, has filed a criminal review petition before the Kerala High Court, challenging an order passed on November 5 by the Ernakulam Additional District and Sessions Judge (Children’s Court) granting bail to the minor in conflict with law (CCL).

In her petition, she submitted that the impugned judgment of the children’s court is ex facie illegal, perverse, and vitiated by a complete non-application of mind to the mandatory statutory exceptions embedded in the proviso to S.12(1) of the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015.

The court erred in holding that the gravity of the offence and the loss of human life cannot be factored into the assessment under the Section, whose proviso explicitly mandates the denial of bail, if release is likely to ‘defeat the ends of justice’ or ‘expose the child to moral, physical or psychological danger’. In high-fatality culpable homicide cases under Section 105 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita committed through gross vehicular recklessness, releasing the CCL severely undermines public confidence in the rule of law and directly defeats the ends of justice, she said in her plea.