SC hears plea on juvenile's age

The Supreme Court Tuesday asked Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy to inform the Juvenile Justice Board, hearing the case of the juvenile accused in the Delhi gangrape, that it was seized of his plea that in heinous crimes, the age limit had to be read with the mental and intellectual level of the accused.

When informed that the Juvenile Justice Board was going to pronounce its order on juvenile accused July 25, an apex court bench headed by Chief Justice P. Sathasivam said: "You can inform them that we are seized of the matter."

Swamy has said in his petition that in the objects of the Juvenile Justice Act, it is stated that it was being enacted in pursuance to the UN convention on the rights of a child but what in effect emerged was a truncated version in which the crucial aspect of the mental and intellectual level of the juvenile accused did not find any mention.