( 1 ) IN Sessions Case No. 104/02, arising out of FIR no. 634/98, the appellant faced trial for offence punishable under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (for short the Code) for allegedly causing homicidal death of his school mate Abhinav Singhal, a student of 9th class in Army Public School, Dhaula Kuan, New Delhi. By the impugned judgment and order, the learned additional Sessions Judge, Delhi while holding the appellant guilty for the said offence has convicted and sentenced him to undergo rigorous imprisonment for life and to pay a fine of Rs. 25,000/- and in default of payment of fine, to undergo simple imprisonment for a further period of six months.

( 2 ) SINCE before us learned counsel for the appellant has not assailed the finding on conviction recorded by the learned trial court and has confined his arguments only on the competency of the trial court to award sentence to the appellant, we deem it unnecessary to state the facts. The sole contention urged by learned counsel for the appellant is that since on the date of incident, the appellant was less than 18 years of age, he was a juvenile within the meaning of Section 2 (k) of the juvenile Justi