Supreme Court of India has rejected plea to reduce age of juvenile from 18 to 16 years, causing major setback to those seeking harsh punishment to minor involved in brutal gangrape of a 23-year-old girl in Indian capital in December last year.

New Delhi, July 17/Nationalturk – In a significant judgement, Supreme Court of India Wednesday rejected plea to reduce age of juvenile from 18 to 16 years.

A bench of Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice of India Altamas Kabir said interference in Juvenile Justice Act is not necessary and dismissed Public Interest Litigations (PILs) which were filed after brutal gang-rape and murder of a 23-year old girl in December last year.

One of the accused, who was part of six men group that had gang raped the 23-year old girl in a moving bus in Indian capital on December 16, is a juvenile and there have been demands to try him in regular trial court and not in juvenile board. He is facing proceedings before a juvenile justice board, which is scheduled to pronounce its verdict on July 25.

“We uphold the provisions of the Act. Interference in the law is not necessary,” the judge said while reading out operative part of judgement.

The apex court judgement means that persons who have committed crime and whose age is below 18 years will continue to be tried by a juvenile board under the Juvenile Justice Act, and not by a regular trial court.

Setback for those seeking harsh punishment  to minor involved in gang rape of girl

Today’s apex court judgement is a setback for those seeking harsh punishment for the minor accused in December 16 brutal gang-rape and murder case. The victim girl had succumbed to her injuries in a Singapore hospital on December 29.

Police in its report has alleged that the minor boy was the “most brutal” of the six accused. This had led to calls to reduce the juvenile age from 18 to 16 so that the rapist could be tried in a regular trial court and awarded stern punishment.

After brutal gang rape and murder of girl, several petitions were filed in Supreme Court which submitted that Indian Juvenile Act needed amendment as it does not talk about the physical or mental maturity of a juvenile.

The brutal gang rape and murder of the girl had triggered massive outrage across India with people demanding reducing juvenile age from 18 to 16 and awarding of death penalty to all the rapists. Even the family members of the girl, who was brutally raped, have demanded equal punishment for the juvenile and the adults accused. “All of them should be awarded death penalty so that such incidents don’t take place in future,” they have said.

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Faiz Ahmad / NationalTurk India News