In 1998, a father and his two sons were accused of a murder in Madhya Pradesh. Twenty threee years later, the Supreme Court on Thursday set aside the life imprisonment of one of the two sons, noting he was a juvenile when the offence was committed, and sent his case to the Juvenile Justice Board to determine the quantum of fine.

A bench comprising Justices U.U. Lalit, Indira Banerjee and K.M. Joseph noted that the incident occurred in July, 1998 when the Juvenile Justice Act, 1986 ('the 1986 Act', for short) was in force. The age of juvenility for a male juvenile under the 1986 Act was 16 years. "one of the accused, was 16 years 11 months as on the date when the offence was committed, he was certainly not a juvenile within the meaning of 1986 Act. However, the age of juvenility was raised to 18 years in terms of the provisions of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000 ('the 2000 Act', for short)", observed the top court.