Rajya Sabha passes Juvenile Justice Bill, 16-year-olds to be tried as adults for heinous crimes

New Delhi: Rajya Sabha passed the Juvenile Justice Bill on Tuesday after the government sought support of all parties on the legislation to "deter many other boys" from doing such a crime.

The bill seeks to treat juveniles between 16 to 18 years as adults for committing heinous crimes such as rape, it will become a law after President Pranab Mukherjee signs the amendments.

While the TMC had extended its full support to the bill during the debate, other parties like JD(U) remained divided over the issue and members of the CPI(M) party staged a walkout just before the bill was put to vote.

Maneka Gandhi who had piloted the bill, had read out a list of gruesome crimes committed by juveniles in the House and asked the House how such cases can be handled.

The parents of the December 2012 gangrape victim, known as Nirbhaya, watched the proceedings from the visitor's gallery.

"Glad that juvenile justice bill has been passed, this will help our future generations and prevent crimes, but at the same time we are pained that our daughter could not get justice." said Asha Devi, Nirbhaya's mother, who was almost in tears when she spoke to the media after the bill's passage.

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Earlier, Gandhi, while seeking support of the Congress, said, "This is not my Bill. Not of the government. This is your Bill. This bill was started by you (Congress), finished by us."

Arguing that nobody would remember who piloted the Bill, the Minister said, "Think about what you want to do".

On his part, Azad complimented the parents of Nirbhaya, especially the mother, saying she is not only fighting for her daughter but also to make sure that there is no other Nirbhaya in the country.

Noting that Nirbhaya case had shaken the country and filled people with anger, the Congress leader said the Bill was very important.

He said be it farmers, or college students or even the women at home watching the news on TV, they were all perturbed by the incident.

Azad said as the Health Minister in 2012, he had taken every possible step to save the girl, including sending her for treatment, "but the prayers of crores of people and the capability of best doctors could not save her in the end".

He said it was a shame for the society that such rapes happen even when we say the country is developing and Indian girls go to foreign universities and are excelling.

Taking a dig at the government, Azad said when the Juvenile law was first enacted by the Rajiv Gandhi dispensation, the cutoff age was 16. "This was subsequently raised to 18 during the NDA government is 2000 and now they want to come back to the age that Rajiv Gandhi had set in 1986," he said.

He said for the last few days, the country has been discussing the issue and the biggest question is about the age. But, from politicians to writers, everyone is divided on the issue and many good arguments can be put forward in support of as well as against the cut off age of 16.

Had the juvenile convict in Nirbhaya case not been released, the government would not have been serious about the Bill, he said.

MP Anu Aga demanded that the Bill be referred to a Select Committee for examination as lowering the age of a juvenile from 18 years to 16 years will be a step in backward
direction and would be considered a knee-jerk reaction only. Most children dread going to remand homes due to brutalities done there, she said.

TMC MP Derek O' Brien earlier urged his fellow parliamentarians to "not wait for the ideal bill" and pass it in its current form.

"I urge Parliament to pass a bill which all citizens want. God forbid if it was my daughter, then would I have hired the best lawyers? Or taken out the gun and shot the culprits. I say this with full responsibility, I am inclined to say that I would have taken out a gun and shot the culprits," Brien said.

“There should be a separate enclosure for juvenile criminals in jail, can't keep them with hardened criminals,” Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said in the House.

Responding to an instance narrated by DMK leader Kanimozhi, Gandhi said there could be instances where the child does not have to go through the adult system at all.

The Minister said while many members have mentioned poverty as a reason, it is not the only reason. She added that even in a prosperous country like Sweden, there are large number of cases of crimes like rape.

She said different countries have defined different "lakshman rekhas" to define children ranging from 9 in some states in the US to 12 in France to others where it is 14 or 16. If this August House decides, it will be 16 in India, Gandhi said before moving the bill for passage.

Gandhi also told the House that her ministry is working to improve the conditions in children's homes and that every village will soon have Women Special Police Officers, who will report crimes which are otherwise not reported.

CPI (M)'s Yechury said a law cannot be made "just on sentiments" but indepth examination of the issue would be required and pushed for sending it to a Select Committee for thorough examination. Trinamool Congress leader Derek O'Brien countered Yechury, saying the bill was not being pushed on sentiments but on merit.

Yechury said the law would not apply to the juvenile convict in the Nirbhaya case. Seeking more deliberations on lowering the age to 16 years, he questioned what would happen if a 15-year-old commits a crime.