JUVENILE AGE VERIFICATION SHOULD BE DONE WITHIN 15 DAYS BY THE INVESTIGATING OFFICER - DELHI HC

The Delhi High Court ordered the Investigation officers investigating offenses committed by Juveniles to obtain documents related to the Juvenile’s age and the ossification test to determine the age is done within 15 days from the date the Juvenile Justice Board issues such direction.

The Court was hearing a Suo Motu case regarding the status of Juveniles in correctional homes and the functioning of the Juvenile Justice Board of Delhi. Anu Grover Baliga, secretary of the Delhi HC legal services committee, informed the Court that the major reason for the delay in disposal of inquiries was that no time frame for the completion to the process of determining the age of juveniles had been given under any Act. She further added that it was common for IO to take substantial time to produce such documents. The amicus curiae, Senior Advocate HS Phoolka, informed the Court that sizable corpus is available in Juvenile Justice Fund but, only little has been used for the purpose. He further informed that it was proposed to set up 11 JJBs in Delhi, but only 6 of them have become functional to date.

The Court directed the state to inform about the money sanctioned for the Juvenile Justice Fund and the disbursement of the funds and its purpose. The Case will be next heard on 14th December 2021. 

Author: Papiha Ghoshal