The verdict on the minor accused in the December 16 gang-rape case was deferred till August 5 by the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) on Thursday. The sentence (dispositional order) in the robbery case, in which the juvenile has already been held guilty by the JJB, has also been deferred to the same date.
The JJB's order was put off in the light of the plea of Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy for a fresh interpretation of the term 'juvenile', which he raised in the wake of the brutal gang-rape of a 23-year-old girl in a moving bus.
"The JJB presided over by Principal Magistrate Geetanjali Goel, postponed the verdict for August 5 considering the fact that the Supreme Court is seized of a petition concerning the interpretation of the term juvenile," counsel for the accused Rajesh Tiwari said. He also said that the sentence (dispositional order) in the robbery case, in which the juvenile has already been held guilty by the JJB, has also been deferred to August 5.
Agreeing to hear his plea, the Supreme Court had, on July 23, asked Swamy to inform the JJB about his pending petition in the apex court. Accordingly, Swamy had informed the JJB about the direction given by the apex court pursuant to which he was asked by the board to furnish an affidavit in this regard.
Swamy's plea will come up for hearing before the Supreme Court on July 31. He has, in his petition, sought that the "mental and intellectual maturity" should be considered instead of age limit of 18 years for such offenders, while fixing their culpability and contended that his plea would become infructuous if the JJB went ahead with pronouncement of the verdict, which was scheduled for Thursday.
Tiwary also said that he will challenge Swamy's plea before the appropriate court as to why he has filed such a petition in this particular case. The family of the 23-year-old victim was present for hearing and they told the media that they were satisfied with the proceedings. The father of the victim said the juvenile deserves to be "hanged".