The Supreme Court has come to the rescue of a man who was sentenced to life imprisonment for a murder 20 years ago as he was a juvenile at the time of the offence. The man was seven months short of attaining the age of 18 years. A bench, headed by Justice S A Bobde, recalled its order passed in 2014 wherein Dharmendra’s plea was dismissed along with another convict in the case. Dharmendra had later moved a plea claiming he was a juvenile and hence he could not have been convicted as an adult by the trial court in 1999.
The court also sought a report from the District and Sessions Judge, Guna, Madhya Pradesh, who was asked to conduct an inquiry into the juvenility of Dharmendra. In his report, the sessions judge concluded that the convict’s date of birth is June 3, 1979. Therefore, as on November 1, 1996, when he committed the crime, he was 17 years, four months and 29 days.
The SC held, “It is clear that the appellant was, therefore, not liable to be convicted under the IPC read with Code of Criminal Procedure. The appellant’s case could have been dealt with only under the Juvenile Justice Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000. Having regard to the provisions of the Act of 2000, we are of the view that the sentence of life imprisonment awarded to the appellant needs to be set aside and hereby set aside vide Section 16 of the Act of 2000.”