The Union cabinet has approved the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Bill, 2014 which proposes to treat juvenile older than 16 years as adults if involved in heinous crimes such as rape and murder. A decision in this regard was taken at the Cabinet meeting held in New Delhi today. The Bill has the provisions that juvenile convicted for heinous crimes may face a jail term but will not be awarded life sentence or death penalty. The Juvenile Justice Board will decide whether cases where a juvenile is involved in a heinous crime, would be tried under the provisions of the Juvenile Justice Act or normal trial court.

At present, if an accused person is found to be a juvenile or under 18 years, he is tried by the Juvenile Justice Board and if convicted, is sent to a juvenile reform home for a maximum period of three years.

The Union Cabinet has also approved the proposal to liberalise Foreign Direct Investment regime for Defence and Railways. According to the decision, Foreign Investment Limit in Railways will go up to 100 per cent while FDI in the Defence sector will go up to 49 per cent from the existing 26 per cent.