Sarthak Umang
Published on: 21 November 2022 at 18:57 IST
The Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh High Court emphasized that the certificate given by the educational institution other than play school that the accused first attended should take precedence when determining whether or not the claims of juvenility are true.
The remarks were made by a bench made up of Justice MA Chowdhary during a hearing on a revision petition filed in opposition to an order by an additional sessions judge that supported the finding of the magistrate that the petitioner/appellant was not a juvenile.
The petitioner’s counsel contended that both of the lower courts had determined the petitioner’s age as an accused based on the Chowkidar of the village’s record rather than the petitioner’s/school accused’s certificate, which has precedence over other documents.
The age of the petitioner should be accepted as provided on the school record, having preference over other documents as against the record of village Chowkidar.
In deciding the case, the bench noted that the legislation on the subject required that, in order to verify the accused’s claim of juvenility, precedence be given to the certificate issued by the educational institution other than a play school that he or she initially attended to claim of juvenility.
“Therefore, the petitioner/accused as on the date of commission of the offence was below the age of 18 years and was a juvenile within the definition of Juvenile Justice Act and his trial, in any case, could have been conducted only by Juvenile Justice Board and not by a regular Sessions Court”
On the basis of abovementioned reasoning the court allowed the review petition and transferred it to the Juvenile Justice Board Jammu, for further proceedings.