18 Years After Murder Conviction, Delhi High Court Sets Aside Life Sentence As Ossification Test Reveals Convict Was Minor On Date Of Incident

In a case dating back to 1999, the Delhi High Court has set aside the life sentence of a murder convict after he took the plea of juvenility during the pendency of his appeal. The ossification test revealed that his age was between 10 to 20 years old on the day of incident.

"Considering the fact that the upper age limit cannot be taken to the detriment of the appellant and as per the lower limit, the appellant was a minor at the time of alleged incident, he is entitled to the benefit of juvenility. The appellant was convicted for offences punishable under Sections 302/452 IPC as noted above. Maintaining the conviction of the appellant for the said offences, which is not being challenged on merits before this Court, the order on sentence is set aside," said the court.

The division bench of Justice Mukta Gupta and Justice Anish Dayal in the judgment dated November 23 further observed that in any case the conviction "will have no disqualification at any stage against the appellant in terms of Section 24 of the J.J.Act."

The convict had been in custody for nearly five years and five months when his sentence was directed to be suspended on April 13 in 2005. "Even as a juvenile the period of protective custody for rehabilitation that could be awarded was three years. Hence, this Court finds no ground to remand the matter to the Juvenile Justice Board on the order on sentence in terms of the decision of the Hon'ble Supreme Court reported as (2013) 11 SCC 193 Jitendra Singh Vs. State of U.P," the court said.

The appellant in 2005 had challenged the trial court decision of July 5, 2004 by which the accused was convicted for offences punishable under Sections 302 and 452 IPC. He was sentenced to life imprisonment on July 9, 2005. In 2019, he took the plea of juvenility before the high court.

Since the Supreme Court in Hari Ram Vs. State of Rajasthan and Anr held that the benefit of the increase of the age of the juvenility to 18 years introduced by the JJ Act of 2000 will apply retrospectively, it was thus to be determined whether the appellant had completed 18 years of age on the date of alleged commission of offence to avail the benefit of the J.J. Act, the court noted.

The bench had earlier remanded the matter to the trial court for determination of the age of appellant as on November 6 in 1999 - the date of incident. Since neither the date of birth from the school nor the certificate issued by the municipal corporation was available, a medical board was constituted by the Additional Sessional Judge in December 2019.

The medical board conducted physical, radiological and dental as also orthopedic examinations of the appellant. Though the appellant had also submitted his Aadhaar and PAN cards, they were not considered.

"The appellant also had submitted his Aadhar Card and PAN Card whereby his date of birth was mentioned as 1st January 1983. However, the said documents were not on the basis of any record from the school or municipal authority. Hence, in terms of Section 94 of the J.J.Act, the age of the appellant will have to be ascertained as per the ossification test conducted and opined by the Medical Board to be between 30 to 40 years as on 18th December 2019, which makes the age of the appellant on the date of incident i.e. 6th November 1999 to be between 10 years to 20 years," the bench said, while granting relief to the convict.

Title: RK vs State

Citation: 2022 LiveLaw (Del) 1127

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