RS amends juvenile justice law, lowers age of trial from 18 to 16; minimum punishment for a serious offence will be seven years in jail, while it will be below three years for petty crimes. But no death sentence or life term.
New Delhi : Responding to street protests against the backdrop of the release of the juvenile con-vict in the gangrape-cum-murder case of December 16, 2012, Parliament has amended the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Bill, which provides for lowering the age for trial from 18 years. Now juveniles aged 16 years and above will be tried under laws for adults for heinous crimes. These cri-mes include rape, murder and terror related acts. In the amended Bill, the minimum punishment for a serious offence will be seven years in jail, while it will be below three years for petty crimes. Also, if a juvenile has committed the crime along with adults, then he or she could face legal action in a regular court and not in a special court. The Bill also says that a juvenile cannot be given death sentence or life term.
The amendment had been passed by the Lok Sabha earlier, and on Tuesday it was passed by the Rajya Sabha as well by voice vote. Asha Devi and Badrinath, the parents of the victim Jyoti Singh, were present in the visitors’ gallery when the Bill was passed. ‘‘I am satisfied that the Bill has been passed, and other young girls will get justice. But I am sad that my daughter did not get justice,” said Jyoti’s mother Asha Devi who has spearheaded pro-tests for a ‘retrospective law’ in the national capital.
Former top cop Kiran Bedi tweeted, “But for Nirbhaya’s parents the Juvenile Justice Bill would never have been passed by the Rajya Sabha with the sense of urgency it did today.” Tuesday’s amendment will, however, not affect the juvenile offender in the December 16 case. Replying to the debate on the Bill, Women and Child Development (WCD) Minister Maneka Gandhi said the legisla-tion was a “nuanced” one and was much needed to act as a “deterrent”. She said the incidents of heinous crimes by juveniles of the age of 16 years and above were on the rise and cited statistics to
support her contention. Allaying concerns expressed by members about the implications of the proposed legislation, Gandhi said it was “not against children but rather provides for, protects, nurtures and keeps them safe.”The Congress supported the bill, though many of its leaders had said they favoured sending it to a select committee. Several other parties, including NCP, CPI (M) and DMK, had also pushed for sending the Bill to a Select Committee, arguing that further examination was required to decide whether the age for punitive action should be reduced to 16 years from the current 18 years. But after CPI (M) members led by Sitaram Yechury staged a walkout, all parties welcomed the legislation.
