JITENDER ALIAS JITU Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The present application under Section 7-A of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000 (hereinafter referred to as the said Act') has been filed on behalf of the appellant Jitender @ Jitu claiming that he was a juvenile in conflict with law as defined in Section 2(l) of the said Act on the date of commission of the alleged offence, which was 19.08.2004. In short, the appellant contends that he was below the age of 18 years on the date of the incident and that he should be given the benefit of the provisions of the said Act.

(2.) By an order passed by the predecessor Bench on 26.11.2010, the Registrar Appellate (Judicial) was directed to conduct an enquiry as to whether the appellant was a juvenile on the date of the alleged commission of offence. This direction was given after the said Bench had noted that the date of birth of the appellant, as given in the family register of the appellant maintained by the Gram Panchayat, Manikpur, Block Achhaldha, Tehsil Vidhuna, District Auraiya, UP, was 09.10.1987. If that were to be correct, then the age of the appellant on the date of the incident would have been approximately 16 years and 10 months.

(3.) Although the predecessor Bench had directed that the enquiry be conducted and the report be furnished before the next date of hearing, which was 03.03.2011, we found that the said Registrar had not been able to achieve much progress in the matter and had fixed the next date of hearing on 05.05.2011, which was beyond the date on which the Court had directed the matter to be listed, that is, 03.03.2011. Consequently, we had directed that the concerned Block Development Officer should produce, through a duly authorized officer/ official, the original record pertaining to the family details of Jitender @ Jitu. We had directed issuance of notice to the appellant's father Sh. Raj Kumar, son of Sh. Pati Ram, resident of 1844, Phase-3, JJ Cluster, Madanpur Khadar, Delhi-110076 to appear in person and produce whatever evidence and documents including any school certificate showing the date of birth of his son Jitender @ Jitu.