The 16-year-old student of Gurgaon's Ryan International School, who had been accused of the murder of Pradyuman Thakur,

will be treated as an
adult and undergo a regular trial in a court, the Juvenile Justice Board has said. If convicted, he will stay in a correctional home till he is 21 years
old and then be transferred to a jail, the board said.

The brains of juveniles has not fully matured.

Juveniles, especially those under the age of 16, don't have the mental capabilities to plan or carry out crimes, or to understand the consequences of their actions.
They have low inpulse control, and act on emotions like anger and fear. If we feel that giving them the right to vote or get married before the age of 18 is wrong,
why is it ok to sentence them as adults?

In the context of Age of Criminal Responsibility in India there were two contrasting senses of
criminal responsibility. The first sense concerned the capacity of a person to engage in criminal
conduct. The second related to the process whereby a person was held answerable for such
conduct. The distinction between responsibility as capacity and as answerability was important
for the more pragmatic outcomes.

Today, nearly all cultures share the view that the younger the child the more vulnerable she/he is
physically and psychologically and less able to fend for herself/himself. Age limits are a formal
reflection of society’s judgement about the evolution of children’s capacities and responsibilities.
Almost everywhere, age limits formally regulate children’s activities: when they can leave
school; when they can marry; when they can vote; when they can be treated as adults by the
criminal justice system; when they can join the armed forces; and when they can work. But age
limits differ from activity to activity, and from country to country

In S. varadarajan v. state of Madras AIR 1965 SC 942 , a girl who was on the verge of attaining majority
voluntarily left her father’s house, arranged to meet the accused at a certain place and went to the sub
registrar’s office, where the accused and the girl registered an agreement to marry. In this case no
liability of the accused arose on the ground of kidnapping as the girl was on the verge of attaining
majority and was thereby treated as adult.

“THE STATE CANNOT TAKE AWAY CHILDHOOD, BEFORE IT CREATES A PROTECTIVE

ENVIRONMENT FOR ITS CHILDREN.” ----- As we form our opinions it may be prudent to consider a
few facts. According to the National Crime Records Bureau, in 2012, only 1.2 per cent of all Indian Penal
Code crimes were committed by juveniles. Only 4.2 per cent of all crimes committed by juveniles were
rape — and only 3.5 per cent of all rapes were committed by juveniles.
Despite Article 39 of the Constitution directing that children should be given opportunities and facilities
to develop in a healthy manner in conditions of freedom and dignity, and that childhood and youth be
protected against exploitation, and moral and material abandonment, India’s children are subject to great
violence. In a national study on child abuse in 2007, the Ministry of Women and Child Development
found that two out of every three children had been physically abused and most children did not report the
matter to anyone; 53.22 per cent of children reported having faced one or more forms of sexual abuse; 50
per cent of cases of abuse are by persons known to the child or in a position of trust and responsibility.