The Supreme Court today allowed the Juvenile Justice Board, JJB, to deliver its verdict in the December 16 gangrape-cum-murder case involving a minor. The apex court, however, admitted a plea seeking fresh interpretation of the term juvenile in the statute on the basis of mental and intellectual maturity of minor offenders instead of the age limit of 18 years while fixing their culpability. A Bench headed by Chief Justice P Sathasivam agreed to hear former MP Subramanian Swamy's plea seeking fresh interpretation of the term juvenile but said, the JJB can go
ahead with pronouncing the verdict in the case. The Bench also issued notice to the Centre on Swamy's plea.
Earlier, the apex court had said that the JJB be informed
not to pronounce its verdict involving the juvenile who was
one of the six persons who had allegedly brutally gangraped a
23-year-old girl in a moving bus in Delhi, till it decides the
PIL. The girl had died in a Singapore hospital on December 29.
On August 19, the JJB, presided over by Principal Magistrate Geetanjali Goel, had postponed the verdict till August 31, for the fourth time since July 11, on the ground that a PIL had been filed in the Supreme Court.