Tribute to Nirbhaya: Rajya Sabha passes crucial Juvenile Justice Bill

New Delhi, Dec 22: In what could be termed as tribute to 'Nirbhaya', the much awaited Juvenile Justice Bill has been passed by the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.

The Upper House has passed the bill, without ammendments, through voice vote. The bill has now been sent to President Pranab Mukherjee for his approval.

Once it gets the President's approval, the bill will be transformed into Act. The crucial bill was passed in Lok Sabha in May this year.

All the political parties except the CPI-M had passed the bill when called for voting while the CPI-M staged walk out of the House as it was opposed to lowering the age of juvenile criminals from 18 to 16 years of age.

After passage of Juvenile Justice Bill, law will try offenders who are 16 and above as adults in heinous crimes such as rape and murder cases. But, there is no provision of capital punishment and life imprisonment to the juvenile criminals.

Earlier, Union Minister Maneka Gandhi requested the Rajya Sabha to pass the Juvenile Justice Bill after it was taken up for discussion.

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

Meanwhile, the parents of Nirbhaya, the victim of gruesome December 16 gang rape in 2013, were also present in the audience while the parliamentarians were discussing the crucial bill.

OneIndia News