Juvenile Justice | Aadhar Card Not Acceptable To Determine Age Of Prosecutrix: Madhya Pradesh High Court

The Madhya Pradesh High Court recently held that pursuant to the provision under Rule 12 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) Rules, 2012, the Aadhar Card of a prosecutrix cannot be relied upon to determine their age.

The bench comprising Justice Vivek Agarwal differed from the decision of a division bench of the Delhi High Court vis-à-vis reliability of Aadhar Card to determine the age of a minor-

Yet distinguishing the decision of Hon'ble Madras High Court in Panneerselvam Vs. Inspector of Police, MANU/TN/1054/2014, Division Bench of Delhi High Court has held that Aadhar card will be a superior document and is to be taken into consideration for determination of age. Shri Kartik Jaggi fairly admits that the decision of the Supreme Court in Jarnail Singh Vs. State of Haryana, AIR 2013 SC 3467, is though discussed in para 36 of the judgment by the Division Bench of Delhi High Court but while arriving at its conclusion in para 37, it has not discussed that how the statutory rules can be superseded merely because a particular document is issued by the Government of India. In fact that document is not issued by the Government of India but an independent agency, namely, UIDAI.

Facts of the case were that the Petitioner was on trial for allegedly committing rape upon a minor girl. During the trial, he had moved an application before the trial court seeking its direction to bring the original copy of the Aadhar Card of the minor Prosecutrix. His application, however, was rejected. Aggrieved, he moved the Court.

To substantiate his averments against the impugned order, the Petitioner relied on the decision of a division bench of the Delhi High Court in Jabbar v. State [CRL.A.-1444/2013], wherein it was observed that Aadhar Card, having been issued by the Central Government, would have supremacy over any document issued by a Municipal Corporation/Municipalities.

Examining the submissions of parties and documents on record, the Court expressed its disagreement with the arguments put forth by the Petitioner. It noted that a perusal of the decision in Jabbar v. State would show that the judgment did not discuss as to how the statutory rules could be superseded merely because a particular document is issued by the Government of India. It further added that an Aadhar card is not issued by the Government of India but by an independent agency, namely, UIDAI.

Placing reliance on the decision of the Apex Court in Jarnail Singh Vs. State of Haryana [AIR 2013 SC 3467], the Court noted that the provisions under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 and Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Rules, 2012 are mandatory in nature and would have an overreaching effect over other provisions. Thus, it was concluded that an Aadhar card cannot be used to prove the age of the minor Prosecutrix and that her age would have to be necessarily determined in terms of Rule 12 of the Rules of 2012 or Section 94 of the Act of 2015.

With the aforesaid observations, the Court held that there was no illegality in the impugned order and accordingly, the petition was dismissed.

Also Read: Aadhaar Card Not Recognized As Document For Proof Of Date of Birth Under Juvenile Justice Act: Kerala High Court

Cause Title: Manoj Kumar Yadav v. State of M.P. (C.R.R. 1641/2021)

Case Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (MP) 55

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