The main legal point established in the judgment is the admissibility of birth certificates and matriculation certificates for determining juvenility under the Juvenile Justice Act, and the reliance on ossification test reports for age determination.

ORDER : – Appellant has filed the present appeal under section 14-A(2) of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act (for short ‘the SC/ST Act’) being aggrieved by the order dated 16-9-2020 passed by the Special Judge (SC/ST Act), Rajgarh whereby the application filed by the accused seeking declaration that he is “child in conflict with law” and his trial be sent to Board was rejected.

Facts of the case in short are as under :

2. An FIR was registered against the appellant under sections 363, 366, 376-B, 376(2) of the Indian Penal Code read with section 5 and 6 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act and 3(2)(v) of the SC/ST Act and he was arrested. The investigation was completed and charge-sheet has been filed before the Special Session Judge. In the charge-sheet his age is declared as 19 years at the time of commission of offence on 25-12-2019.

3. Appellant/accused filed an application asserting that at the time of commission of the offence he was below 16 years of age i.e. juvenile, therefore, his trial be sent to the juvenile Court/board. In support of above contention, he has produced the mark sheet of class-6, year 2018-19 in which his date of birth is mentioned as 13-3-2006.

4. Vide order dated 6-8-2020 learned trial Court has ordered for an enquiry under section 9(2) read with section 94(2) of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 (for short ‘the JJ Act, 2015’). In support of his contention the appellant has examined ML Kushwaha, In-charge Head Master of Govt. Primary School, Pipalkheda as PW/1, Dauljiram, (father) as PW/2 and Ramkalibai (Mother) as PW/3. They have deposed that the date of birth of the appellant is recorded as 15-7-2015 at the time of admission in class-3. The Head Master has appeared before the Court with the original admission register Ex.D/1. Prima facie, learned Judge has disbelieved the entry in the record and directed for ossification test of the appellant. He was examined by the District Medical Board, Rajgarh and a report dated 4-9-2020 was submitted to the Court. As per the findings of the Medical Board, the age of the applicant was 18 years or more at the time of commission of the offence. In order to prove the report Dr. Devashish Maskole, Dentist appeared in the Court as PW/4 and deposed that as per the opinion of the Medical Board Ex.P/2 the age of the appellant/accused was 18 years or more.

5. After hearing learned counsel for the appellant and the Public Prosecutor, learned trial Court has disbelieved the entry of date of birth recorded in the mark sheet as well as scholar register and accepted the opinion of the Medical Board and held that the appellant is not “child in conflict with law” means a child who is alleged or found to have committed an offence and who has not completed eighteen years of age on the date of commission of such offence; as defined under section 2(13) of the JJ Act and the trial cannot be sent to the JJ Board. Being aggrieved by the aforesaid order, the present appeal is filed.

6. Shri Dave, learned counsel appearing for the appellant submits that sub- section (2) of section 94 of the JJ Act provides that in case the committee or the Board has reasonable grounds for doubt regarding whether the person brought before it is a child or not then shall undertake the process of age determination by obtaining date of birth certificate from the school or matriculation or equivalent certificate or birth certificate from the corporation and only in absence of the aforesaid certificates age shall be determined by the ossification test or any other medical age determination test. In the present case, the appellant has produced the mark sheet and examined the In-charge school Head Master, therefore, there was no need to send the appellant for determination of age by an ossification test. The date of birth as recorded in the birth certificate is 13-3-2006 and at the time of alleged commission of offence he wa