Jai Singh Sekhon, J.

1. Hari Singh convict is undergoing imprisonment for life in a case of murder. He has actually suffered more than five years of sentence besides having earned some remission more than, 10 years including remissions. He had applied to the State Government for premature release on the ground that he was less than 20 years of age at the time of commission of the offence on the basis of the instructions issued by the State Government Annexures P 1 to P 3.

2. In reply, the State Government has maintained that his case was rightly rejected as he was 23-24 years old at the time of his conviction and thus could not be said to be 20 years old at the time of commission of offence.

3. The perusal of Annexure P8, the judgment of the then learned Sessions Judge, Bhatinda, shows that the convict had given his age as 18 years, but the Court had recorded his age as 23-24 years by appearance. The judgment does not indicate whether the trial Court had obtained the opinion of some medical expert regarding the age of Hari Singh accused. Thus, it appears that the trial Court had depended upon its imagination about the age of the accused from his physical appearance. Such an