Why Punjab and Haryana High Court refused to try a woman as an adult for her mother-in-law’s murder

Punjab and Haryana High Court News: Highlighting the “tender age” and the “early marriage” of the minor murder accused, the Punjab and Haryana High Court dismissed the criminal revision plea of the son in the murder case of his mother by his wife.

The man was seeking to declare his juvenile-acused wife an adult in the case.

Justice Sanjay Vashistha was hearing the plea of a son against the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) and the trial court order of treating the accused and his wife in his mother’s murder case as juveniles.

“It is beyond a shadow of doubt, because, at such a tender age, the cognitive and emotional faculties of a child are still at a developing stage, and no child of such age would be in a position to take proper and correct/appropriate decisions independently,” the court observed on January 12.

The court added that it has also come on record that the preliminary assessment in the present case has been delayed by nearly four years after the occurrence, and by that time, the juvenile/accused had attained the age of majority.

According to the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2015, a preliminary assessment is to be conducted about the mental and physical capacity of the juvenile to commit such an offence and the ability to understand the consequences of the offence and the circumstances in which he allegedly committed the offence.

Jagriti Rai works with The Indian Express, where she writes from the... Read More