LAW FOR ALL

Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000.” “Age determination inquiry” contemplated under Section 7A 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 above mentioned 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. 33. Once the court, following the abovementioned procedures, passes an order, that order shall be the conclusive proof of the age as regards such child or juvenile in conflict with law. It has been made clear in sub-rule (5) of Rule 12 that no further inquiry shall be conducted by the court or the Board after examining and obtaining the certificate or any other documentary proof after referring to sub-rule (3) of Rule 12. Further, Section 49 of the JJ Act also draws a presumption of the age of the juvenility on its determination.” 13. We are of the view that in a case where genuineness of the school leaving certificate has not been questioned, the Sessions Court and the High Court were not justified in placing reliance on certain statements made by Parkash Kaur, mother of the accused in the cross-examination. The Sessions Court also committed an error in placing reliance on the certificate issued by the village Chowkidar who was examined as RW2. When the law gives prime importance to the date of birth certificate issued by the school first attended, the genuineness of which is not disputed, there is no question of placing reliance on the certificate issued by the village Chowkidar. 14. We may indicate that all these legal aspects has already been dealt with in Ashwani Kumar Saxena case (supra), hence, further elucidation of the question raised does not arise. The issue raised, in our view, is fully covered by the abovementioned judgment. In such circumstances, we are inclined to allow this appeal and set aside the order passed by the Sessions Court dated 16.04.2011 and the impugned judgment and order dated 07.07.2011in Criminal Revision No. 1440 of 2011. We hold that the appellant was a juvenile on the date of the incident and has to be tried by the Juvenile Justice Board. The Sessions Court is directed to make over the files to the Juvenile Justice Board to proceed with the trial, so far as the appellant is concerned.