Vijay Singh @APPELLANT@Hash State of Rajasthan & Ors

Petitioner has preferred this revision petition aggrieved by order dated 08.04.2015 passed by Juvenile Justice Board, Bharatpur, whereby,

respondent No.2 Rajat Singh has been declared as a Juvenile and judgment and order dated 24.10.2016 passed by Additional Sessions Judge No.4,

Bharatpur, whereby appeal preferred by the petitioner was rejected.

It is contended that respondent No.2 was a major at the time of commission of the offence as is evident from scholar register Annexure-3, wherein

his date of birth is mentioned as 08.10.1994. The incident took place on 24.04.2013, meaning thereby that he was aged eighteen years and six months

at the relevant time.

It is also contended that father of respondent No.2 was serving in the army and in the details given by him to the Army, the date of birth of

respondent No.2 was mentioned as 05.05.1994 according to which respondent No.2 was major at the time of incident.

It is argued that even though the Board Certificate is produced still when there is doubt on the date mentioned in the Board Certificate, enquiry can

be conducted by the Court, in support of this argument reliance has been placed on the judgment of the Apex Court, “Parag Bhati Vs. State of

U.P. & Anr.†Cr.L.R. (SC) Page 492. Reliance has also been placed on the judgment of this Court “Mool Singh & Anr. Vs. State of

Rajasthanâ€​ 2016(3) Cr.L.R. (Raj.) Page 1187.

Counsel for respondent No.2 has opposed the revision petition. His contention is that Juvenile Justice Board had conducted an enquiry into the age

of the petitioner and has come to the conclusion that date of birth mentioned in the Board Certificate is correct according to which respondent No.2

was minor on the date of the occurrence.

It is also contended that as per Rule 12 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Rules 2007, the date of birth mentioned in the

Board Certificate has to be treated as conclusive proof of the date of birth of the accused.

I have considered the contentions.

The Apex Court in the case of “Parag Bhati Vs. State of U.P. & Anr.†(supra) has held that if matriculation certificate is available, the date of

birth mentioned in the matriculation certificate has to be treated as a conclusive proof with regard to the date of birth of the accused. However, if

there is any doubt or a contradictory stand is taken by the accused which raises a doubt on the correctness of the date of birth, then an enquiry for

determination of the age is permissible.

The documents produced on behalf of respondent No.2 pertains to his admission in JIMP Pioneer School, Dehradun, his Transfer Certificate of

National Academy School, Bharatpur, his Transfer Certificate of Soni Academy Senior Secondary School, Bharatpur. In all these documents date of

birth of respondent No.2 Rajat Singh is mentioned as 05.05.1995. The same date of birth appears in the Board Certificate issued by the Board of

Secondary Education, Rajasthan.

Document of which petitioner relies is a Scholar Register of Government School and admission form alleged to be filed by mother of respondent

No.2. Pritam Singh Principal of School was examined and he has admitted in his cross-examination that admission form of students bearing number

214 and 216 is different from admission form no.2/5 of present respondent No.2 Rajat Singh. He has also admitted that he was not in the School at the

relevant time, in view of the same, this document cannot be considered to be genuine.

The Juvenile Justice Board has already conducted an enquiry and has come to the conclusion that respondent No.2 Rajat Singh is a minor on the

basis of matriculation certificate, the judgment cited by counsel for the petitioner has no applicability to the facts of this case and in view of Rule 12 of

the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Rules 2007, no case is made out for entertaining the present revision petition.

The present revision petition is accordingly dismissed. Stay application also stands disposed. Record of the Court below be returned

forthwith.     Â