Recently, the Supreme Court of India ruled that the juvenile age limit should remain 18 years. My suggestion is that Parliament could enact a law enabling judges to exercise their discretion and treat, in the rarest of rare cases, those aged 15 and above but below 18 years as adults while awarding punishment, depending upon the seriousness of the crime (e.g., murder) committed by them and the intention. The need for such a revision arises when we realise that children of today, i.e., those below 18 years, are more informed of things than they were earlier, thanks to the influence of television, the Internet, social media and the coverage in detail of subjects including violence in the media. Furthermore, parental/societal control over “children” is declining, thanks to western influences and encouraging “individuality” and “independent” adult-like actions is the trend.
V.S. Badari,
Bangalore
