SUNIL @ SONU Vs. STATE OF NCT OF DELHI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) BY the present petition, petitioner seeks a direction to the Jail Superintendent, to make necessary arrangement for conducting a bone age test which is the age determination test, to determine the age of the petitioner. As per the petition, the petitioner has served a sentence of 12 years and 4 months out of the total sentence of life imprisonment. The appeal of the petitioner was dismissed by the High Court on 27.01.2010. Counsel for the petitioner submits that on the date of commission of offence i.e. 14.4.2000, the age of the petitioner was 16 years.

(2.) NOTICE was issued in this matter. A status report has been filed. Today documents on the basis of which the status report has been filed have been handed over in court.

(3.) IN a recent decision rendered by the Supreme Court of India in the case of Abuzar Hossain Alias Gulam Hossain v. State of West Bengal, reported at : (2012) 10 SCC 489, it has been held that the claim of juvenility can be raised at any stage irrespective of the delay in raising the same. The Supreme Court has further held that this plea can be raised even in appeal if such a claim was not pressed before the trial court and in fact can be raised even after disposal of the case. Framing guidelines in the case of Abuzar Hossain (supra) it has been held that for making a claim with regard to juvenility, after conviction, the claimant must produce some material which may, prima facie, satisfy the Court that an inquiry is necessary and for which the initial burden has to be discharged by the person, who has made such a claim. While no exhaustive list can be prepared as to the nature of material, which would be sufficient to raise such a plea, but the documents, which find mentioned in Rules 12(3)(a)(i) to (iii), would be sufficient to call for an enquiry by the Court.