NEW DELHI:  According to Indian law, it has been made public the "child-oriented" draft rules under the Juvenile Justice Act, which if adopted, would come into retrospective effect from January. The policy come a day prior to the Delhi Police file a charge-sheet in the Mercedes hit-and-run case and media has learnt that the police will ask for the charged to be tried as an adult.

Fews day back, a 18 year old was allegedly driving the car and hit a man, who died. "He was just short of 18 when he hit and killed Siddharth Sharma,'' said a police source, "We will ask that he is tried for culpable homicide under IPC''.

Union minister Maneka Gandhi, “The draft bill has been put up on the ministry of Women and Child Development website for public consultation. "It will be in retrospect for all cases since January, but we want to emphasise that it is child-oriented so children will not have to go to jail”.

The new rules, however, say children between the age of 16 and 18 years who are accused of heinous crimes can be tried as adults under IPC and CrPC. The decision rests with the Juvenile Justice Board, but states may amend that aspect.

To assure that no dispute about age, the new rules say every hospital should have a testing centre, so the age of every accused can be determined within 30 days.

The Juvenile Justice Act came into force in January, following a huge uproar about the increasing number of crimes committed by children under the age of 18.

Among them were two cases that fuelled much of the public anger - the Delhi gang-rape case of December 2012 and the Aashina rape in Mumbai that took place soon after. In both cases, boys under the age of 18 were among the accused, who, could get a maximum of three years' detention at correctional homes.