MALKHAN SINGH Vs. N.C.T OF DELHI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) BY way of this Revision Petition, the Petitioner Aakash takes exception to the order dated 24.08.2012 passed by the learned Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ), Dwarka whereby the order dated 31.03.2012 passed by the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) holding the Petitioner Aakash to be a juvenile was reversed and the Petitioner was held not to be a juvenile.

(2.) FIR No.63/2011 under Section 363/366/376(2)(f)/308 IPC, Police Station Sagarpur was registered against the Petitioner. The Petitioner was declared to be a juvenile by an order dated 08.04.2011, while the case was at the stage of defence's evidence. The order dated 08.04.2011 was assailed in an Appeal before the learned ASJ. By an order dated 10.10.2011 the matter was remanded to the JJB with the direction to conduct a fresh inquiry into the age and date of birth of the Petitioner. The JJB conducted a fresh inquiry to determine the question of Petitioner's juvenility and held that his date of birth was to be taken as 05.04.1995. Consequently, on the date of commission of the offence the Petitioner was held to be 15 years 11 months and 4 days and thus, a juvenile under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2000 (the Act of 2000).

(3.) IN Ashwani Kumar Saxena v. State of M.P. (2012) 9 SCC 750, the Hon'ble Supreme Court deprecated the practice of converting an inquiry as envisaged under Section 7A of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000 (Act of 2000) to a full-fledged trial under the Code of Criminal Procedure. The Supreme Court explained the scope of 7A of the Act of 2000 and Rule 12 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Rules, 2007 (Rules of 2007). Paras 24 to 43 of the report is extracted hereunder:-