DO MINORS GET DEATH SENTENCE FOR RAPE AND MURDER?

Justice Madan B Lokur, the chairman of the Supreme Court Juvenile Justice Committee, has said that juvenile convicts/minors cannot be handed down a death sentence in every case pertaining to heinous crimes such as rape and murder and judgment has to be drawn on the basis of evidence.

"It is not that for every murder, for every rape, the only penalty is death penalty. I mean, we are not savages in this country. Just because the person happens to be 17 years old or close to 18 years old, commits a heinous crime - therefore he must get the death penalty, it cannot be like that. You have to still work on the basis of evidence and come to some conclusion," the Supreme Court judge was quoted as saying by Deccan Chronicle.