Crimes don't have cut-off dates like government jobs: Supreme Court on a stricter Juvenile Justice act

The Supreme Court, on Tuesday, pressed for a more strict and detailed Juvenile Justice act. The statement appears days after Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi demanded to treat juveniles accused of rape on par with adults.

"You can't have a cut-off date for crime like you have for government jobs," the Supreme Court was quoted as saying on Tuesday.

"If they are old enough to commit crime, they are old enough to handle punishment" said Member of Parliament in the Lok Sabha, Jay Panda.

Maneka Gandhi's comment that  according to the police, 50% of all sexual crimes were committed by "16-year-olds who know the Juvenile Justice Act so they can do it." "But now for premeditated murder, rape, if we bring them into the purview of the adult world, then it will scare them," she said.

She, like her UPA predecessor Krishna Tirath, proposed that juveniles above 16 years guilty of heinous crimes be treated on par with adult offenders. She also said that she would oversee changes in the law and the process related to the same.

This is at odds with the recommendations of the Justice Verma Committee wherein they stated that since the aim of the Juvenile Justice Act was reformation of child offenders, an age ceiling of 18 must be maintained. The panel was formed after the 2012 Delhi gang-rape to amend the criminal justice act.