Chakradhari Sharan Singh, J.—By the impugned judgment and order dated 30.03.2017/04.04.2017 passed by the learned Special Judge, POCSO Act, Muzaffarpur in Meenapur P.S. Case No. 320 of 2014, Trial No. 26 of 2015, the appellant has been convicted and sentenced as under:—

2. The date of occurrence as per the prosecution’s case is 26.07.2014. During the pendency of this appeal an application came to be filed giving rise to I.A. No. 1 of 2019 for sending the records of the case to the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB in short) in order to ascertain the juvenility of the appellant as on the date of occurrence, on the ground that the family of the appellant got hold of matriculation certificate issued by the Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB in short) during the pendency of this appeal, wherein the date of birth of the appellant has been entered as 28.08.1998. A Marksheet dated 05.06.2014 and an Admit Card issued by the BSEB for Annual Secondary Examination, 2014 have been brought on record along with I.A. No. 1 of 2019, wherein the appellant's date of birth has been entered as 28.08.1998.

3. In view of the plea of juvenility taken in the application, this Court, by an order dated 17.02.2020, had referred the issue of ascertainment of age of the appellant as on the date of occurrence to the JJB, Muzaffarpur. The JJB, in turn, had communicated its order dated 09.10.2020 through letter No. 394 dated 13.10.2020 determining the age of the appellant to be 15 years ten months and 28 days as on the date of occurrence i.e. 26.07.2014.

4. The said determination of age made by the JJB was apparently based on the registration certificate, photostat copy of the Admit Card and the original copy of the transfer certificate. Based on these documents and the entry made in the admission register maintained at Ram Krishna Uchcha Vidyalaya, Meenapur, Muzaffarpur, the JJB has concluded that the date of birth of the appellant is 28.08.1998. It further appears from the said order that the prosecution did not oppose before the JJB the said entries made in the educational certificates/ school register.

5. In order to cross-check the correctness of the finding recorded by the JJB as regards the appellant’s age as on the date of occurrence, this Court by an order dated 18.10.2022 had directed the Registry to seek a report from the BSEB by sending the photostat copies of the Marksheet and Admit Card as to whether the said Mark-sheet and the Admit Card were issued by the BSEB in the name of the appellant Ankit Kumar, son of Munindra Singh with his mother’s name Bindu Devi.

6. In response to the said order, the Vigilance Officer, BSEB has sent a report to this Court certifying the date of birth of the appellant as recorded in the Mark-sheet to be 28.08.1998, upon verification from the records maintained by the BSEB.

7. In view of the report of the BSEB as noted above and the order passed by the JJB dated 09.10.2020, the appellant is declared to be a juvenile within the meaning of Section 2(k) of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000 (‘JJ Act, 2000’ in short), he being below 18 years of age as on the date of occurrence.

8. I.A. No. 1 of 2019 is accordingly disposed of.

9. It would be apt to notice, at this juncture, that since the date of occurrence is 26.07.2014, the provisions under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 (‘JJ Act, 2015’ in short) shall have no application in view of Section 25 thereof which reads as under:—

“25. Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, all proceedings in respect of a child alleged or found to be in conflict with law pending bef