India passes tough law for heinous juvenile crimes

Parents of the December 16 gang rape victim on Tuesday expressed satisfaction over the passing of the Juvenile Justice Bill in the Rajya Sabha here. The amendment comes at a time where there are huge protests going on across the country to amend the current bill for two reasons.

The most disputed change to the existing Juvenile Justice Act in the wake of recent cases is the fact that a juvenile between the ages of 16-18 can be tried as an adult for heinous offences.

However, the bill is being accused of being in violation to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which specifies that all children under the age of 18 will be treated as equal.

If a juvenile is sent to an adult jail, he will be sent to a borstal till he become 21 and then there will be a review.

The CPI(M) went so far as to stage a walkout as the Bill was not sent to a select committee. “But I thank everyone for their support in the passage of this Bill”, she said.

While the GST bill was washed out after opposition parties such as Congress raised objections over certain clauses in it, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley himself referred the bankruptcy bill to a Joint Parliamentary Committee. Singh’s mother told news channel CNN-IBN that she was happy the bill had been passed, but that justice for her daughter remained elusive. In the case of the juvenile accused in the Delhi gangrape he was to receive a sewing machine, cash and is even being housed at an NGO after his release from the rehabilitation home. The juvenile offenders have also been committing heinous crimes against other children, there is a need to bring justice to these children.

‘The new law will decide whether a child committed the crime in a childish or adult frame of mind’. “We hope that it will be passed today so that a strong and effective law is in place to deal with heinous criminals, whatever age they may be of”, he said.

“When you are lowering the age of a juvenile from 18 to 16 what is the logic of which you are doing it. What does Maneka Gandhi mean when she says nature vs nurture?”

Kurien, however, said there was no proposal to send the bill to a panel, after which members of the Left parties staged a walkout.

The parents of the December 16 gang-rape victim on Tuesday met central minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi to demand early passage of the juvenile justice bill in parliament.