The Supreme Court (SC) was dealing with an appeal filed against the Madras High Court’s (Mad. HC) order in which the Mad. HC has convicted the accused, by relying on school transfer certificate while determining the age of the victim, for the offences under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (POCSO Act). The SC observed such reliance to be erroneous especially considering Section 94(2) of Juvenile Justice Act, 2015 (JJ Act), which does not set out school transfer certificate as a valid evidence for the process of determining the age of the victim. Further, in absence of documents as prescribed under the JJ Act, the prosecution has to prove the age of the victim through acceptable medical tests/examination as per Section 94(2)(iii) of the JJ Act.
