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IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA

CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION

CRIMINAL APPEAL NO. 1845 OF 2013

State of Bihar

..Appellant

versus

Chhotu Pandey @ Roshan Pandey

..Respondent

O R D E R

The issue which arises for consideration in the present

appeal is, whether the respondent was a juvenile on the date of

the commission of the offence. It is not in dispute that the

offence was committed on 21.8.2011.

The respondent in order to establish his juvenility

placed reliance on his matriculation certificate which depicted

his date of birth as 2.1.1994. If the aforesaid date of birth

is to be taken into consideration, the respondent would

admittedly be a juvenile on the date of occurrence. Despite the

availability of the matriculation certificate for the

determination of the age of the respondent, the trial Court

directed a medical examination of the respondent. The said

direction was assailed by the respondent before the High Court.

The High Court by the impugned order set aside the said

direction. It is in these circumstances, that the State of

Bihar has filed the present appeal before this Court.

Having given our thoughtful consideration to the

controversy in hand, we are satisfied, that in terms of the

Digitally signed by

Parveen Kumar Chawla

Date: 2015.01.05

17:52:11 IST

Reason:

Signature Not Verified

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mandate contained in Rule 12 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and

Protection of Children) Rules, 2007, in the event of the claim

of juvenility being ascertainable on the basis of a

matriculation certificate, it is not open to the opposite party

to demand a medical examination for establishing the age of the

accused/convict. Insofar as the instant aspect of the matter is

concerned, this Court, having considered the matter in Ashwani

Kumar Saxena vs. State of Madhya Pradesh (2012) 9 SCC 750,

observed as under:

“32.

“Age determination inquiry” contemplated

under Section 7-A of the Act read with Rule 12 of

the 2007 Rules enables the court to seek evidence

and in that process, the court can obtain the

matriculation or equivalent certificates, if

available.

Only in the absence of any

matriculation or equivalent certificates, the court

needs to obtain the date of birth certificate from

the school first attended other than a play school.

Only in the absence of matriculation or equivalent

certificate or the date of birth certificate from

the school first attended, the court needs to

obtain the birth certificate given by a corporation

or a municipal authority or a panchayat (not an

affidavit but certificates or documents). The

question of obtaining medical opinion from a duly

constituted Medical Board arises only if the

abovementioned documents are unavailable. In case

exact assessment of the age cannot be done, then

the court, for reasons to be recorded, may, if

considered necessary, give the benefit to the child

or juvenile by considering his or her age on lower

side within the margin of one year.”

In view of the clear expression contained in Rule 12(3)

of the aforementioned Rules, which have been duly considered by

this Court in Ashwani Kumar Saxena's case (supra), we are

satisfied, that the instant appeal filed by the State of Bihar

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is wholly misconceived. The same is accordingly hereby

rejected.

It is not a matter of dispute, that the respondent has

already undergone three years of incarceration, i.e., the

maximum period of incarceration by a juvenile under the

provisions of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of

Children) Act, 2000. Keeping the above period of incarceration

in mind, we direct that the respondent be released forthwith, as

he must be deemed to have undergone the maximum sentence.

The instant appeal is disposed of in the above terms.

As a sequel to the above, all pending criminal

miscellaneous petitions are also