RC — Legal Statutory Provisions

Reading Comp.RC — Fact vs OpinionReading Comprehension● Easy

Question

[PASSAGE] The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, or the JJ Act, 2015 allows for the possibility for trying adolescents above 16 as adults if they are accused of committing a heinous offence. A heinous offence is one with a minimum punishment of seven years. Offences such as culpable homicide and causing death by negligence, which are common in drunken driving cases, are not heinous offences because they do not have a prescribed minimum punishment. The JJ Act, amended in 2021, now categorises an offence that has no minimum sentence, but has a maximum sentence of seven years or more as a serious offence which nonetheless, in the opinion of activists, does not merit the transfer of a case to the adult criminal justice system.

[QUESTION] Which of the following statements is/are correct?

1If an offence has no minimum prescribed punishment, it cannot be considered heinous as per the JJ Act, 2015.

2As per the JJ Act, 2021, an offence for which there is a provision for a maximum sentence of seven years or more, but no minimum sentence, is to be considered a serious offence.

Options

1 only

2 only

Both 1 and 2

Answer

Neither 1 nor 2

Explanation

Let us check both statements directly against the factual rules established in the text [cite: 3820, 3821, 3822, 3823]:

Statement 1 is correct: The text states that a heinous offense requires a minimum punishment of seven years, noting that crimes lacking a specified minimum sentence 'are not heinous offences because they do not have a prescribed minimum punishment' [cite: 3821, 3822].

Statement 2 is correct: The text explicitly notes that the 2021 amendment 'now categorises an offence that has no minimum sentence, but has a maximum sentence of seven years or more as a serious offence'.

Since both statements accurately restate explicit facts from the text, option (c) is the correct choice.

Comprehensive reading comprehension questions can be verified by directly matching the option statements with the corresponding sentences in the text.

Answer: (c).

Question details

Year

2026

Paper

CSAT

Question

Q20

Section

Comprehension

Sub-topic

RC — Fact vs Opinion

Type

Reading Comprehension

Difficulty

Easy

Source hint

RC passage — statutory definitions

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