The determination of juvenility under the Juvenile Justice Act requires credible documentary evidence; discrepancies in age records necessitate reliance on medical assessments.

1. “Rape is one of the most terrible crimes on earth and it happens every few minutes. The problem with groups who deal with rape is that they try to educate women about how to defend themselves. What really needs to be done is teaching men not to rape. Go to the source and start there.”
 - Kurt Cobain
This appeal is at the instance of the State of Jammu & Kashmir (now U.T. of Jammu & Kashmir) and is directed against the order passed by the High Court of Jammu & Kashmir at Jammu dated 11/10/2019 by which the High Court rejected the Criminal Revision Application No. 27 of 2018 filed by the appellant State herein, thereby affirming the order passed by the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Kathua dated 27/03/2018 holding the respondent accused herein to be a juvenile on the date of the commission of the alleged offence.

2. This litigation originates from the most unfortunate Kathua rape case. The Kathua rape case involved the abduction, gang rape and murder of an eight year - old Muslim girl by name 'X' by six Hindu men and the respondent herein (claiming to be a juvenile) in January, 2018 in the Rasana village near Kathua in Jammu & Kashmir. The victim belonged to the nomadic Bakarwal community. She disappeared for a week before her body was recovered by the villagers a kilometer away from the village. In all eight individuals were arrested in connection with the ghastly crime which includes the respondent herein. Since the respondent herein claimed to be a juvenile, his trial was separated. The other six co - accused were put to trial and vide the Judgment and Order dated 10/06/2019 passed by the Trial Court, six of the seven accused stood convicted and one accused was acquitted. Three of those convicted were sentenced to life imprisonment and remaining three to five years rigorous imprisonment. The Special Investigation Team (SIT) was constituted to probe into the entire matter and ultimately charge - sheet came to be filed against all the accused persons. The father of the victim namely 'Y' lodged a complaint in the Hira Nagar Police Station stating that his daughter had gone missing.

3. On 17/01/2018, the body of the victim was found and taken into custody by the police. The body was sent for autopsy. The post - mortem was conducted by a team of doctors at the District Hospital, Kathua on the same day. On 22/01/2018, investigation of the case was transferred to the Crime Branch and Crime Headquarters.

4. The post - mortem revealed the presence of clonazepam in the body of the deceased girl. The examination by the doctors found that the deceased had been drugged which was sedative, before she was raped and murdered. The forensic evidence suggested that she had been held on several dates by Sanji Ram, one of the accused persons of the crime. The strands of hair recovered from the temple matched those taken from the deceased. The forensic examination stated that the deceased had been raped multiple times by different men and that she had been strangulated to death as well as hit on the head by a heavy stone.

5. The Delhi Forensic Science Laboratory analysed fourteen packets of evidence containing vaginal swabs, hair strands, blood samples of four accused, viscera of the deceased girl, the girl's frock and salwar