SANTA KUMAR RAI Vs. STATE OF SIKKIM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The Appellant is assailing the Judgment of conviction dtd. 28/10/2022, in Sessions Trial (POCSO) Case No.05 of 2020, of the Court of the Learned Special Judge, Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012, at Namchi and the Order on Sentence dtd. 31/10/2022.

(2.) The Appellant was charged with the offence under Ss. 5(l) and 5(n) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (hereinafter, the 'POCSO Act'), read with Ss. 376(2)(f), 376(2)(n) and 506 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (hereinafter, the 'IPC").

(3.) The primary ground advanced by Learned Legal Aid Counsel for the Appellant to assail the conviction is that the age of the victim went un-established by the Prosecution as the contents of Exhibit 7, the Birth Certificate of the victim, furnished by the Prosecution were not proved. The document was allegedly then in the possession of P.W.8, the victim's sister, who failed to depose of its contents. P.W.7, the Doctor and in-charge of the Birth Records Register at the concerned Primary Health Centre (PHC), merely stated that on 3/2/2020 she received a requisition for authentication of the Birth Certificate of the minor from details maintained in the Birth Record Register, of Melli PHC. Accordingly, she verified the date of birth of the victim but she had no personal knowledge of the entries made in the Register. The evidence of P.W.3, the Vice-Principal of the School shed no light on the age of the victim, the witness being unaware of the entries in Exhibit 5, the School Admission Register. He traced the victim's date of birth in the School Admission Register and found it recorded as '12/6/2002', but had no inkling of who had made the entries. That, this Court in Sanjay Manger vs. State of Sikkim Crl. A. No.07 of 2021, High Court of Sikkim, decided on 14/11/2022., has held that;