What Is Heinous Crime ?
According to the Indian Panel Code, a heinous crime can be defined as an offense for which the minimum punishment i.e. time of imprisonment is seven years or more.
Age Of Maturity
As per the law, the age of maturity is stated as 18 years which means that a person is considered to have mature thinking when he use to reach the age of 18. But it would not be wrong to say that the new generation use to become mature earlier due to many changes in society.
- Advertisement -
This raises a very crucial question to us that should juveniles who commit heinous crimes should be treated or punished like adults or should there be more focus on rehabilitation.
All the fruits on a tree are not the same, some are sweet, some are bitter, some are rotten, whereas some are very healthy. This means we can’t treat all the fruits in the same way, some need to be thrown in a dustbin ( the rotten ones), some need to be cleaned (the dirty ones ), whereas some need to be eaten.
Similarly, all the juveniles who use to commit heinous crimes cant to be treated in the same way. Just like apples, some needs to be treated and punished like adults whereas for some there needs to be more focus on rehabilitation.
- Advertisement -
When a cloth is torn or anything is broken, there are two ways, one is it can be thrown, the other one is it can be repaired.
How do we decide that it needs to be repaired or needs to be thrown?
We use to decide this on the basis of damage done. If a small piece of a thing is broken, it is in the initial stage of breakage and it can be repaired. But if it is broken into several pieces it needs to be thrown. In the same way, a juvenile who use to commit a crime should be analyzed that is it out of immaturity or is done with the proper planning even after being aware of the consequences.
- Advertisement -
How to decide that should juveniles be tied as adults or not?
As per Juvenile Justice Act, amended in 2015 provision allowed children in conflict with the law to be tied as adults under certain circumstances after considering the following factors.
- The mental and physical capacity of the alleged juvenile
- The ability of the alleged juveniles to understand consequences.
- Whether the alleged child knew about the circumstances in which the crime was committed.
It can be concluded that all the juveniles who use to commit heinous crimes can’t be tied as adults. It needs to analyze in a proper manner after considering certain factors that the alleged juvenile should be punished like adults or not.
- Advertisement -
For deep details, you can read the full article. Click the link below :
