New Delhi: Parents of the December 16 gangrape victim have moved the Supreme Court seeking directions to put one of the accused who was then a minor on trial by a criminal court by quashing a law which bans such prosecution of juveniles.
The juvenile, who was six months short of 18 years at the time of incident, was convicted for gangrape and murder of the 23-year-old girl but he got away with a maximum of three years imprisonment mandated under the juvenile law by the Juvenile Justice Board here.
The parents of the victim, who had said the August 31 verdict of the Board was not acceptable to them, filed the petition in the apex court saying since they are challenging the constitutional validity of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2000, there is no other concerned authority to which they can approach for such relief.
Badrinath Singh and his wife Asha Devi, parents of the victim, sought a direction to declare “as unconstitutional and void the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act to the extent it puts a blanket ban on the power of the criminal courts to try a juvenile offender for offences committed under the IPC”. (PTI)
