SUNIL KUMAR YADAV Vs. STATE OF WEST BENGAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner is challenging an order dated 05.07.2017 passed by the Learned Judge, Special Court-cum-Additional Sessions Judge, Chinsurah, Hooghly in NDPS Case No. 39/2016 under Sections 21(c), 25 and 29 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act read with Sections 420, 468 and 120B of the Penal Code, thereby, inter alia, holding the petitioner not to be a juvenile in conflict with law on the basis of a purported ossification test report as also an order dated 28.03.2017 passed by the said Learned Court directing ossification test.

(2.) The Learned Senior Counsel appearing on behalf of the accused petitioner submitted that the Learned Trial Court erred in not treating the petitioner as a juvenile in conflict with law. He submitted that the alleged date of occurrence in the present case is 01.12016 while as per the petitioner's claim, his date of birth is 10.03.2001. He contended that even as per the applicable law being the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 (the Act of 2015, for short), the petitioner was, if at all, a juvenile in conflict with law.

(3.) The petitioner had initially placed reliance on school records and thereafter on a birth certificate. The Learned Senior Counsel submitted that the Investigating Officer who was directed to inquire had some doubts because the school in Bihar could not be located. But, he could not dispute the birth certificate produced on behalf of the petitioner. Yet, the Learned Court directed an ossification test and subsequently passed the impugned order relying on the same.