PESHAWAR, June 29: The Peshawar High Court has ruled that trial of a juvenile offender could only be conducted by a juvenile court.

The court has observed that under the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance, 2000, a juvenile court had the exclusive jurisdiction to try a juvenile offender.

In its detailed judgment, in a case of a juvenile offender decided few days back, a single bench ruled that no other court, including the special anti-narcotics court, had the powers to try a juvenile.

In the instant case a two-member bench, headed by Justice Tariq Pervaiz, accepted the plea of an appellant, Ikramullah, and remanded his case to the juvenile court.

The appellant was arrested on May 14, 2001, on Peshawar-Kohat road and 12 kilograms of charas and 1.2 kilograms of opium were recovered from his possession by the Anti-Narcotics Force. He was charged under the Control of Narcotics Substance Act (CNSA).

Before the judge of special court (CNSA), the appellant pleaded guilty following which he was sentenced to life imprisonment with fine of one million rupees on Jan 22, 2002. Advocate Subhanullah had appeared for the appellant whereas Advocate Khalid Khan represented the state.

The appellant contended that he was 15/16 years old at the time of occurrence and thus the special judge had no powers to try him. He claimed that under section 4 of the ordinance juvenile courts were established.

The state’s counsel argued that the CNSA was a special law and cases falling under it could only be tried by a special court. He added that the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance had no overriding effect on the CNSA.

The court observed that under section 2 of the ordinance child was defined to be a person who at the time of commission of an offence had not attained the age of 18 years.

The bench added that under sub-clause (f) of section 2 of the ordinance an offence meant an offence punishable under any law for the time being in force.

The bench added: “In view of the legal position where age of the appellant was recorded as 15/16 years by the trial judge but keeping in view the special provision as contained in the ordinance, judge special court (CNSA) had no jurisdiction to try the offence against the appellant. He should have referred the case to the juvenile court for trial.”