Constituency Child Marriage Watch-Munali Chapter
How does the law deal with defilement cases were both the girl and boy are minors?
It’s still defilement. The boy will be found guilty of defilement.
Defilement is a crime targeted for the girl child, whether
there has been penetration regardless of the age of the prepatrator. The law does not look at the boy to determine the act of defilement.They look at the age of the boy to determine criminal capacity (section 14 of CPC)
So a child under the age 8 doesn’t have criminal responsibility. A male child under age of 12 is deemed by the law to be incapable of having carnal knowledge.
So if he’s over 12, he has no defence, he will be found criminally liable for defilement.Section 14 of the PC comes into play. If boy is above 12 years, he will be charged but if found with an offense to answer, sentenced to community service or counseling.
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