Hon’ble V.K. Shukla, J.—Kidnapping for ransom of a 3 year old child and his recovery in a police raid led to a trial by the Sessions Court in which the appellant has been convicted by the judgement dated 15.4.2013.

2. In this appeal, an issue of juvenility has been raised in the background that the incident in which the appellant is involved is of 15th/16th May 2003. The appellant claims that his date of birth recorded in the High School Examination (Matriculation) record is 15th October 1986 and as such on the date of the incident, he had not attained the age of 18 years, consequently, he was entitled to the benefit of being a juvenile as contemplated under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000 read with the the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Rules 2007 framed thereunder.

3. What appears from the record is that the appellant had moved an application for declaring him to be juvenile before the concerned Court in Session Trial No. 188 of 2004. The prosecution had moved an application for conducting a joint trial of this case alongwith the Session Trial No. 56-A of 2004 and 188-A of 2004.

4. The application moved for declaring the appellant a juvenile in Session Trial No. 188 of 2004 was sent to the Juvenile Justice Board and in that file, vide order dated 5.9.2005, the claim of the appellant to declare him a juvenile in Case Crime No. 147 of 2004 and Case Crime No. 148 of 2004, the Juvenile Justice Board rejected the plea of the appellant after getting a medical report from the Chief Medical Officer, Mathura dated 4.7.2005. The order dated 5.9.2005 categorically records that since no other evidence was adduced the parties agreed for the disposal of the application and it was held that the applicant was aged about 19 years on the date of the incident in the aforesaid case crime numbers.

5. After almost four years thereafter, a prayer appears to have been made in Session Trial No. 188-A of 2004 connected with the same incident praying for declaration of the appellant in the said Session Trial as a juvenile. The matter was examined by the Juvenile Justice Board and on 19.11.2009, the prayer for declaring him a juvenile was rejected by the Juvenile Justice Board against which the appellant filed an appeal on 19.9.2011 in terms of Section 52 of the 2000 Act after a period of almost two years. It appears that at the stage of appeal the matriculation certificate was adduced and pressed for the first time as it conformed to the 2007 Rules. In these proceedings, a reference was made of the application moved for declaring the appellant to be juvenile bearing No. 35-Kha. This was the application, which was moved for sending the file to the Juvenile Justice Board, but prior to that, after the order dated 5.9.2005 referred to hereinabove, a request had been made to send the file to the learned Sessions Court.

6. Thus two sets of orders came into existence in relation to the claim of juvenility of the appellant, one dated 5.9.2005 and the other dated 19.11.2009.

7. The appeal, which was against the order dated 19.11.2009 was dismissed on 29.9.2011 and the appellate Court recorded all the above noted facts in the said order. What appears from the order dated 29.9.2011 is that this contention of the appellant about declaring him to be a juvenile was dismissed on the observations that were noted including the observation that no appeal had been filed against the order dated 5.9.2005 passed earlier in relation to S.T. No. 188 of 2004.

8. Faced with this at this stage, the appellant filed an Appeal No. 153 of 2012 against the order dated 5.9.2005, which was dismissed on 4.2.2013 firstly, on the ground that the appeal had been presented after almost seven years and there was no reason to condone the delay and secondly, the appellant had full knowledge of the order dated 5.9.2005, that was subject-matter of consideration by the Juvenile Justice Board in the subsequent order dated 19.11.2009 an