The court can invoke its powers under section 482 Cr.P.C. to address an apparent abuse of the process of law.

JUDGMENT :

1. Heard Sri Rehan Ahmad Siddiqui, learned counsel for the petitioner and Sri Anirudh Kumar Singh, learned AGA for State.

2. In view of the proposed order notice to opposite parties no. 2 and 3 are dispensed with.

3. By means of this petition the petitioner has prayed following relief :

"Wherefore, it is most respectfully prayed that this Hon'ble Court may kindly be pleased to quash/ set aside the impugned order dated 16-11-2023 passed by the Juvenile Justice Board, Hardoi in case crime No.263/2023 u/s 376-D, 506 I.P.C. 67-A IT. Act & 5G/6 P.O.CS.O Act of P.S Sandila Distt Hardoi thereby declaring the O.P. No.2 as juvenile without considering the relevant materials available on record, to secure the ends of justice & to prevent the abuse of the process of the Court."

4. Learned counsel for the petitioner has contended that the impugned order dated 16.11.2023 passed by the Juvenile Justice Board, Hardoi is illegal, unwarranted and in the aforesaid order the learned Authority / Board concerned has ignored the apparent error, i.e. the difference of age between the opposite party no. 2 and his real sister is only five months, as per the High School certificates of both the persons and the age difference between the real brother and sister may not be five months in any manner whatsoever. The specific ground has been taken on behalf of petitioner before the Juvenile Justice Board (hereinafter referred to as the 'Board') but the Board, while considering the medical examination report, ignored the High School certificates of the opposite party no. 2 and his sister. Learned counsel has stated that the second eventuality as per section 94 of the Juvenile Justice Act (hereinafter referred to as the 'Act') would come only when the first eventuality may not be liable to be examined and if first eventuality as per section 94 of the Act is available, the other eventuality of section 94 of the Act may not be taken into account, therefore, he has submitted that the order dated 16.11.2023 passed by the Board declaring the opposite party no. 2 as juvenile may be set aside. Section 94 (2) of the Act is being reproduced as under :

"(2) In case, the Committee or the Board has reasonable grounds for doubt regarding whether the person brought before it is a child or not, the Committee or the Board, as the case may be, shall undertake the process of age determination, by seeking evidence by obtaining

(i) the date of birth certificate from the school, or the matriculation or equivalent certificate from the concerned examination Board, if available; and in the absence thereof;

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

(iii) and only in the absence of (i) and (ii) above, age shall be determined by an ossification test or any other latest medical age determination test conducted on the orders of the Committee or the Board:

Provided such age determination test conducted on the order of the Committee or the Board shall be completed within fifteen days from the date of such order."

5. Sri Singh, learned AGA has firstly raised the objection regarding maintainability of this petition by submitting that the order dated 16.11.2023 may be assailed by filing revision but the learned counsel for the petitioner has placed reliance of the dictum of Apex Court in re: Dhariwal Tobacco Products Limited and others vs. State of Maharashtra and another : (2009) 2 Supreme Court Cases 370, Prabha Chawla vs. State of Rajasthan and another : ( 2016) 16 Supreme Court Cases 30 as well as decision of this Court in Application U/S 482 No. 20368 of 2017 : Dr. Mod. Iqbal Gaji vs. State of U.P. and another (judgment and order dated 7.4.2023) wherein it has been held that so as to prevent the abuse of the process of the law the extraordinary remedy which is inherent power of this court u/s 482 Cr.P.C. may be invoked. Sri Singh has further submitted that in the present case as per the High School certificate of the opposite party no. 2