Juvenile Justice Act | Plea Of Juvenelity Can Be Raised Even After Conviction & Sentence Attained Finality : Supreme Court

The Supreme Court observed that the plea of juvenility can be filed even after the judgment and order of conviction and sentence granted against a person has attained finality.

While holding so, the bench comprising Justices BV Nagarathna and N Kostiswar Singh acquitted the accused in a murder case who had filed a plea for juvenility after the order of conviction and sentence was passed against him.

“Although the application (for juvenility) has been filed subsequent to the conviction ordered by this Court, we have regard to the judgment of this Court as noted above and in judgment dated 17.01.2004 in Criminal Appeal No.64/2012, titled as Pramila vs. State of Chhattisgarh, that an application for claiming juvenility may be made even after the judgment and order of conviction and sentence has been granted against a person which has attained finality.”, the court said.

It is worthwhile to mention that the accused/respondent No. 1 had preferred a miscellaneous application claiming the plea of juvenility even after the Supreme Court had upheld his conviction.

On the direction of the Supreme Court, a detailed examination was done by the Sessions Court under Section 94 of the Juvenile Justice (Care & Protection) Act, 2015 determining the age of the accused at the time of the commission of an offence which recorded that the accused was below 18 years of age as on the date of the incident.

Accepting the Sessions Court's report, the judgment authored by Justice Nagarathna accepted the claim of juvenility of the accused/applicant and therefore set aside the conviction recorded against the accused.

The Court accepted the accused/respondent No. 1 argument and set aside his conviction.

“Bearing in mind the aforesaid judgments and the report submitted by the learned Sessions Judge, pursuant to the directions of this Court, we find that the date of birth of the applicant has been proved to be 04.10.1984. Consequently, the claim of juvenility made by the applicant, who was arrayed as accused no.3 is upheld and the conviction as recorded against him by this Court is set-aside and he stands acquitted. As he is on interim bail, his bail-bonds stand cancelled.”, the court held.

Appearance:

For Petitioner(s) Mr. Amit Sharma, A.A.G. Mr. Yashraj Singh Bundela, AOR Mr. Ramesh Thakur, Adv. Mr. Chanakya Baruah, Adv. Ms. Saloni, Adv. Mr. Rohan Singla, Adv.

For Respondent(s) M/S. Prashant Shukla Law Chambers, AOR Mr. Prashant Shukla, Adv. Mrs. Anushree Shukla, Adv. Mr. Prabhat Chowdhary, Adv. Mr. Kartik Kumar, Adv. Ms. Ritika Raj, Adv. Mr. Akshat Mudgil, Adv.

Case Title: STATE OF MADHYA PRADESH VERSUS RAMJI LAL SHARMA & ANOTHER

Citation : 2024 LiveLaw (SC) 791

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