Modi government chairs important meeting to amend POCSO Act

The ordinance which allows courts to award the death penalty to those convicted of sexually assaulting children up to 12 years of age also enhances the minimum sentence for rape from seven years to 10 years in jail.

The maximum sentence is life imprisonment.

After the Nirbhaya case in December 2012, when the criminal laws were amended, the minimum sentence for raping a woman was kept at seven years of rigorous imprisonment which could be extended to life in jail.