Team Blitz India
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court acquitted a woman accused in a murder case from 2000 after learning that she was below 18 years of age at the time of the incident. The Supreme Court bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan noted that on the date of the incident, the woman appellant, identified as Pramila, was a juvenile aged 17. The bench said that the woman should have been dealt with under Section 21 of the Juvenile Justice Act.
“Under clause (h) of Section 2 of the 1986 JJ Act, a ‘juvenile’ has been defined to mean a boy who has not attained the age of sixteen years or a girl who has not attained the age of eighteen years. Thus, on the date of occurrence of the offence, the appellant was a juvenile. “Therefore, the appellant ought to have been dealt with in accordance with Section 21 of the 1986 JJ Act. The maximum action which could have been taken against the appellant was of sending her to a special home,” the apex court said.
