The Rajya Sabha on Tuesday cleared the Juvenile Justice (Amendment) Bill, 2015, lowering the age of a

legally defined juvenile from 18 to 16 in the case of heinous crimes. Despite the fact that many parties,
including the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and, till last
week, the Congress favoured sending it to a select committee for consideration, neither Shantaram Naik
of the Congress nor Derek OBrien of the Trinamool Congress moved a motion as had been decided by
their parties earlier. The CPI(M) walked out once voting started. The presence of Nirbhayas parents in
the visitors gallery and their protest over the last week seemed to have had an effect on the
Parliamentarians.
In fact, many of the speeches during the discussion had an impassioned tone, whether arguing for or
against the Bill.
Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi said: We may not be able to do anything
about the juvenile convict in the Nirbhaya case but we can deter many other boys from doing so. I do