Doli incapax is a Latin legal maxim meaning ‘incapable of doing any harm or incapable of committing a crime. It is a presumption that a child is incapable of forming the necessary criminal intent for committing an offence. The maxim is based on the following reasoning/ principles: 1. A person is to be held criminally responsible only for those acts that he intends to commit. 2. A child below the age of 7 years does not have sufficient mental understanding to know the consequences of his actions and therefore lacks the criminal intention/mens rea required to hold a person guilty of an offence. 3. A child has to be protected from the rigours of the law at his tender age. Section 82 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 under Chapter IV relating to ‘General Exceptions provides that any act of a child under 7 years of age is not an offence, “Nothing is an offence which is done by a child under 7 years of age”. Thus, no child under 7 years of age can be held criminally responsible. As the child below such an age is incapable of distinguishing between right and wrong, the law confers absolute immunity from criminal prosecution, trial and conviction to such child.
