MINIMUM AGE OF CRIMINAL RESPONSIBILITY AND JUVENILE DELINQUENCY IN INDIA
Downloads
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.55662/Abstract
There are very few references to ancient or medieval Hindu and Mohammedan laws addressing issues concerning juvenile offenders. What is found is a simple ethical code in Hindu Law concerning treatment of children which states that a parent should not administer any punishment to a child under the age of 5 years. Children of such tender age should only be nursed with affection and love. After the age of 5, punishment may be given in the form of rebuke and later as the child moves towards adulthood, this punishment must be replaced by advice. Once the age of 16 is crossed, the child should be treated as friend by his/her parents.
“The idea of a minimum age of criminal responsibility in India first surfaced in the Narada Smriti which laid down that - ‘From the moment god gives life to the eighth year, a child shall be considered to be in the womb. From the age of 8 to 16, he shall be considered as a boy and then a youth, following which he can act independently”. This shloka, eloquently recognises that a child under the age of eight, will not be held liable for any civil or criminal wrongs conducted by him. He will be partly responsible for his acts till the age of sixteen and following this age, he will have full responsibility.
This idea laid down hundreds of years ago still bears an uncanny resemblance to the present legal system concerning child offenders and juvenile delinquents in India. Primary provisions regarding the same are contained in the Indian Penal Code,1860 as well as the Juvenile Justice (Care & Protection of Children) Act,2000.
External References to this Article
Loading reference data...
Readership Data
Refreshing Cached Analytics Data
The cached analytics data has become stale and journal.thelawbrigade.com is making a fresh request to fetch the latest data from Google Analytics. This may take 20-30 seconds depending on the server response time from Google Analytics. Please do not close the browser during this time. We appreciate your patience.
License Terms
Ownership and Licensing:
Authors of research papers submitted to any journal published by The Law Brigade Publishers retain the copyright of their work while granting the journal specific rights. Authors maintain ownership of the copyright and grant the journal the right of first publication. Simultaneously, authors agree to license their research papers under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) License.
License Permissions:
Under the CC BY-SA 4.0 License, others are permitted to share and adapt the work, even for commercial purposes, provided that appropriate attribution is given to the authors, and acknowledgment is made of the initial publication by The Law Brigade Publishers. This license encourages the broad dissemination and reuse of research papers while ensuring that the original work is properly credited.
Additional Distribution Arrangements:
Authors are free to enter into separate, non-exclusive contractual arrangements for distributing the published version of the work (e.g., posting it to institutional repositories or publishing it in books), provided that the original publication by The Law Brigade Publishers is acknowledged.
Online Posting:
Authors are encouraged to share their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on personal websites) both prior to submission and after publication. This practice can facilitate productive exchanges and increase the visibility and citation of the work.
Responsibility and Liability:
Authors are responsible for ensuring that their submitted research papers do not infringe on the copyright, privacy, or other rights of third parties. The Law Brigade Publishers disclaims any liability for any copyright infringement or violation of third-party rights within the submitted research papers.
Citation Metrics
Published
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Copyright © 2026 by Lakshita Handa
The copyright and license terms mentioned on this page take precedence over any other license terms mentioned on the article full text PDF or any other material associated with the article.
How to Cite
Citations List
