Date of birth of a child is crucial in some cases
Deciding the age of the victim, whether she is below 18 years of age or not, is a crucial issue in the case coming under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (POCSO).
How to prove the age of the child victim?
To prove the age of the victim the following three methods, as provided under Rule 12 (3) of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Rules 2007, have been generally resorted to:
- the matriculation or equivalent certificates, if available; and in the absence whereof;
- the date of birth certificate from the school (other than a play school) first attended; and in the absence whereof;
- the birth certificate given by a corporation or a municipal authority or a panchayat;
If the above stated documents are unavailable, it is possible to seek the medical opinion of a duly constituted Medical Board to declare the age of the child. This is the methodology stated by the Supreme Court (SC) in Jarnail Singh v State Of Haryana [AIR 2013 SC 3467].
The above rules were enacted before the formulation of the Juvenile Jstice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015.
J J Act provides another mechanism
The Section 94(2) of the Juvenile Justice( Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 (J J Act) says that the process of age determination of the child, by seeking evidence by obtaining
- the date of birth certificate from the school, or the matriculation or equivalent certificate from the concerned examination Board, if available; and in the absence thereof;
- the birth certificate given by a corporation or a municipal authority or a panchayat;
- and only in the absence of (i) and (ii) above, age shall be determined by an ossification test or any other latest medical age determination test.
