IMPORTANT POINTS
(1) Family Register – It is a question of fact as to how much evidentiary value is to be attached to family register, but to say that it is entirely not relevant to determine age of family members would not be correct enunciation of law.
(2) Juvenility – Plea of juvenility has to be raised in a bonafide and truthful manner.
(3) Provisions of statute are to be interpreted liberally but benefit cannot be granted to appellant who has approached Court with untruthful statement.

JUDGMENT :

HEMANT GUPTA, J.

1. The challenge in the present appeal is to an order passed by the High Court of Punjab and Haryana at Chandigarh dated 30.07.2019, whereby an order passed by the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Fatehabad declaring the present appellant as juvenile in conflict with law was set aside and the appellant was ordered to stand trial as an adult.

2. The facts relevant for the determination of the present appeal are that the appellant was arrayed as an accused in respect of an occurrence on 18.01.2011, wherein the allegation against the appellant was that he waylaid a car and snatched Rs. 22 lacs from the occupants of the car. The complainant was one of the occupant of the car, whereas, another occupant -Bhim Singh lost his life on account of bullet fired on him. During the pendency of the trial, the appellant moved an application on 07.10.2014 claiming that he was a juvenile as on the date of the incident, relying upon his school record disclosing his date of birth as 13.05.1993. The learned Additional Sessions Judge accepted the plea of the appellant and declared him to be juvenile vide order dated 09.01.2015. Such order was challenged before the High Court by way of a revision petition. The revision was allowed on 04.05.2016 and the matter was remitted back to the trial court for adjudicating afresh.

3. The learned Additional Sessions Judge, after remand, found the appellant to be 16 years 8 months and 5 days old on the date of incident as per the Ossification Test report. The age of the appellant as assessed by the Board of Doctors in the report was 23-24 years. The High Court however while setting aside the order of the learned Additional Sessions Judge relied upon the family register prepared under The U.P. Panchayat Raj (Maintenance of Family Register) Rules, 1970¹[For short, ‘Family Register Rules’] to hold that the appellant’s plea of juvenility cannot be allowed. Such order is the subject matter of challenge in the present appeal.

4. The procedure to be followed for determination of age is provided under Rule 12(3)(b) of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Rules, 2007²[For short, the ‘Rules’], which reads as:

“12. Procedure to be followed in determination of age:

(1) In every case concerning a child or a juvenile in conflict with law, the court or the Board or as the case may be the Committee referred to in rule 19 of these rules shall determine the age of such juvenile or child or a juvenile in conflict with law within a period of thirty days from the date of making of the application for that purpose.

(2) The Court or the Board or as the case may be the Committee shall decide the juvenility or otherwise of the juvenile or the child or as the case may be the juvenile in conflict with law, prima facie on the basis of physical appearance or documents, if available, and send him to the observation home or in jail.

(3) In every case concerning a child or juvenile in conflict with law, the age determination inquiry shall be conducted by the court or the Board or, as the case may be, the Committee by seeking evidence by obtaining-

(a) (i) the matriculation or equivalent certificates, if available; and in the absence whereof;

(ii) the date of birth certificate from the school (other than a play school) first attended; and in the absence whereof;

(iii) the birth certificate given by a corporation or a municipal authority or a panchayat;

(b) and only in the absence of either (i), (ii) or (iii) of clause (a) above, the medical opinion will be sought from a duly constituted Medical Board, which will declare the age of the juvenile or child. In case exact assessment of the age cannot be done, the Court or the Board or, as the case may be, the Committee, for the reasons to be recorded by them, may, if considered necessary, give benefit to the child or juvenile by considering his/her age on lower side within the margin of one year

and, while passing orders in such case shall, after taking into conside