Juveniles guilty of heinous crimes may not be able to get away with the paltry punishment of three years. Moved by the recent case of 23-year-old who was gang raped by six men including a juvenile who unleashed extreme cruelty on the victim, the Women and Child Development is considering to make a major change in the Juvenile Justice Act by which any juvenile caught in heinous crime may be tried as an adult.
Speaking to this newspaper, Krishna Tirath, WCD minister said that “I will soon send this proposal to the law ministry. We are thinking to make an amendment in the JJ Act, by which any juvenile caught in heinous crime-sexual assault, repeated sexual assault, rape can be given stricter punishment as in case of an adult.”
Currently, under the act, a juvenile accused faces a maximum sentence of three years and has to be kept in the juvenile correction home. The use of death penalty for those less that 18 years of age is prohibited. “Child offenders can not punished like an adult, as per the JJ Act. In other countries also juveniles are not given death penalty or life sentence,” said Shantha Sinha, chairperson, National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR).
Activists feel that the review has come too late as the juvenile accused in the present case may get away with the punishment of only three years.