The Supreme Court has ordered the release of a man who had already served more than 12 years in prison after receiving a life sentence for a murder committed in 2005. The court determined that he was a juvenile at the time of the offense.
A bench of Justice B R Gavai, Justice PS Narasimha, and Justice Sanjay Kumar referred to a May 2023 report from an additional sessions judge who was tasked with investigating the man’s claim of juvenility. The report indicated that his date of birth was May 2, 1989.
The bench stated, “If the date of birth of the petitioner is May 2, 1989, he was 16 years seven months old as on the date of the crime, i.e., December 21, 2005. Accordingly, the petitioner was a juvenile in conflict with the law on the date of commission of the offence.”
The apex court passed the order in response to a plea filed by the petitioner seeking verification of his claim of juvenility and appropriate actions under the provisions of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000.
The court noted that under the 2000 Act, the maximum period of custody for the petitioner should have been three years. However, because the claim of juvenility was raised for the first time in the present writ petition filed in 2022, the petitioner had already been convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment by the trial court, the high court, and the Supreme Court as part of the criminal process that began in 2005.
The petitioner had spent over 12 years in jail by the time the Supreme Court issued its order. The court accepted the report of the II Additional Sessions Judge, Khammam, and ruled that the petitioner should be released immediately unless detained in another case.
The Supreme Court emphasized that the question of juvenility can be raised before any court at any stage, as stipulated in section 7A(1) of the Juvenile Justice Act, 2000, and confirmed by judicial precedents.
The petitioner had been accused alongside others in the case, and in December 2009, a trial court convicted him and others, sentencing them to life imprisonment. The high court and later the Supreme Court upheld his conviction and sentence.
Two months after the Supreme Court’s order in July 2022, the petitioner filed a petition requesting the state to verify his claim of juvenility.
The state submitted an affidavit stating that the petitioner had attended a school in Andhra Pradesh from the 1st to the 3rd standard, with his date of birth listed as May 2, 1989.
The bench directed the Additional Sessions Judge (Fast Track Court), Khammam, Andhra Pradesh, to investigate the petitioner’s claim of juvenility based on his school documents.