The Cabinet on Thursday gave its approval for an ordinance which will allow the capital punishment or death penalty to be sentenced to those who are convicted of raping a minor means children up to 12 years of age.

The Centre on Saturday approved an ordinance to modify the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act to sentence the death penalty for the rape of children below the age of 12.

The development came in the wake of public fury across the nation over the Kathua rape-and-murder case where the victim was a minor.

After the case of the eight-year-old Kathua victim, other instances emerged, such as in Surat where a nine-year-old, reportedly a victim of traffickers, was raped and killed with 87 injury marks.

 Worth mentioning here existing provisions of the POCSO Act provide for life imprisonment, though after the Nirbhaya case in 2012. The Centre had introduced the death penalty in cases where a woman either dies or she left in a vegetative state after rape.

At present four states passed laws sentencing the rapist of a minor punishable by death. The Cabinet action follows the Centre informing the Supreme Court on Friday that it proposed to modify POCSO to give the capital punishment for goaded sexual assaults on children below 12.