Two bills were presented to in Parliament today to amend the Penal Code and Code of Criminal Procedure, suggesting to increase the age limit of criminal responsibility from age 8 to 12 years, today.
The Bills were presented for the first reading by Chief Government Whip and Minister Gayantha Karunathilake.
According to the Penal Code Amendment Bill, the age limit of 8 years under which no act of a child is considered an offence has been increased to 12 years.
The move to increase the minimum age of criminal responsibility was made after considering the opinions of psychologists and other experts on the subject.
Government authorities said that the experts suggests that the current minimum age of 8 years is too young to be subjected to criminal responsibility.
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