In the last around eight years, reportedly many of the obsolete and irrelevant laws, many from British era, as many as around 1500 have been scrapped. It is correctly reported that in some countries there is provision of expiry date as far as framing a law is concerned, meaning when that date comes, the laws are reviewed but such system is not prevalent in our country. Similarly, a law regarding fixing uniform age for declaring an individual to be an adult is not yet formulated and there is utter confusion as far as the age of attaining adulthood is concerned.
In India, a person can be said to attain the age of adulthood not one time but multiple times. Though it might seem strange to hear yet it is a fact. Like for example, an individual is considered having achieved the age qualifying to be an adult at the age of 12 years whenever he or she has to purchase air ticket and children below 12 years are treated as minor. The reason being that the person concerned occupies an independent seat in aircraft whereas it is to be noted that similar such independent seat is occupied by even children below 12 years of age by just paying half the fare.
Either the airfare in such cases should be full or the child may need to adjust with one of its parents. So, for the purpose of expending for air ticket, person above 12 years of age is considered an adult. Now taking the case of Censor Board certification of Indian movies, it is found still the system of Censor Board classification mentioned as ‘A’, ‘U’ or ‘U/A’ for the purpose of eligibility to view the film. Here again, the definition of age for being classified as an adult changes to person who has completed the age of 18 years. In the present society which is advancing by leaps and bounds, day-in-and-day-out, its a known fact that teenagers are equally knowledgeable, if not more than adult, as far as adult subject matters are concerned.
In fact, in the present education system itself, there are specific chapters which covers topics dealing with adulthood. Thirdly, one finds that there is another age group also for classification as adulthood. Our criminal law is such that if a child below the age of 16 years commits some crime, he or she is covered or punished under Juvenile Act and put in correction homes or Juvenile homes and not treated as an adult thereby landing him or her in proper prison, even if the person concerned has committed some grievous crime. The age of 18 years is considered the one at which a person gains control over their own actions and affairs and becomes responsible for the decisions they make. This comes little in contrast to the age fixed for Juvenile whereby lenience is given even for grievous crime.
Only the person with age of legal majority, that is, 18 years and above are treated as adults when charged with crimes and those not completed the age of 16 years in case of male even having committed an adult crime, is still not punished at par with a culprit of 18 years age. What happens, if, for example, a person under 16 years of age commits some grievous crime while on board a flight? Will he be covered under Juvenile jurisdiction or treated as as an adult, since he has purchased the air ticket as an adult? It is a point to ponder as to whether same person be taken as Juvenile for one purpose and as an adult for another purpose.
Recently, the legal age for giving consent by a male or female for marriage has been reduced from 21 to 18 years, so once again the definition of adult changes here, whereas for the purpose of getting covered under juvenile category, the age is till completion of 16 years for boys whereas it is 18 years for girls. Last but not the least, for the purpose of transacting in Bank, age of 18 years is considered as an adult and below that age considered as minor, unlike in the case of airlines where minor is children below age of 12 years and not 18 years.
The issue of treating a person to be considered an adult and fixing a proper age regardless of whether it is for purchasing of air ticket, or for giving consent for marriage, or for punishment to be meted out for commitment of crime, or even for booking of movie ticket, or for transacting in banks, etc. needs to be uniformly addressed and thus a change to the erstwhile system of classification in age for consideration as an adult or a child requires amendment.
A person should either be considered as falling in the category of minor/children or as a major/adult. There may hardly be any requirement for deviation in fixation of age limit for a particular person to be treated as an adult or as a child and to carry different age limits for different activities and accordingly modify as per varying situation. It would be useful if consideration is given to fix an uniform age for treating any person to be an adult. After all, a person can and should be treated as an adult only once for whatever purpose and not multiple times, ranging from the age of 12 years till 21 years.
