SC rejects Dec 16 gang-rape convict’s claim of being a juvenile at the time of offence

Pawan Kumar Gupta, one of the four men convicted in the December 2012 gang rape, need not be treated as a juvenile, the Supreme Court ruled on Monday, dismissing

Pawan Kumar Gupta, one of the four men convicted in the December 2012 gang rape, need not be treated as a juvenile, the Supreme Court ruled on Monday, dismissing a petition filed by the death row convict arguing that he was less than 18 years old at the time the offence was committed.

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A bench, headed by justice R Banumathi, rejected Gupta’s appeal against a judgment of the Delhi high court, which had turned down his petition on December 19, 2019.

The top court made it clear that the plea of juvenility under the Juvenile Justice Act cannot be re-agitated after the issue was raised and rejected earlier. The court noted that Gupta’s claim of juvenility was rejected by the Metropolitan Magistrate in 2013, Delhi high court in 2014 and the Supreme Court in 2018. The court said that though, as per the Juvenile Justice Act, a plea regarding age of accused can be raised at any stage of a case, it cannot be raised repeatedly after it has been rejected once.

“…once a convict has chosen to take the plea of juvenility before the learned Magistrate, High Court and also before the Supreme Court and the said plea has been rejected up to the Supreme Court, the petitioner cannot be allowed to reagitate the plea of juvenility by filing fresh application under Section 7A of the JJ Act”, the order said.

One of the six people arrested for the 2012 gang-rape and murder of the paramedic was tried as a juvenile and was sent to a correction home for three years before he was released.

Four accused - Pawan (25), Vinay Sharma (26), Mukesh Kumar (32) and Akshay Kumar Singh (31) - were convicted and sentenced to death in a trial that was completed within just a year of the gruesome crime.

The sixth, Ram Singh, allegedly committed suicide at Tihar jail a few months before the trial court delivered its guilty verdict. The trial court verdict was confirmed by the Delhi high court in 2014 and the Supreme Court in 2017.

Gupta’s counsel AP Singh, on Monday, produced the school leaving certificate issued in Gupta’s favour by Gayatri Bal Sanskar Shala of Ambedkar Nagar district in Uttar Pradesh which recorded his date of birth as October 8, 1996.

He argued that Pawan’s age at the time of commission of offence was 16 years, 2 months and 8 days, and the Delhi Police had concealed the records that could have proved his real age.

“Records about Pawan’s age were concealed by the Delhi Police. It is a big conspiracy. They concealed all facts”, said Singh.

Singh also cited Supreme Court judgments which laid down that the claim of juvenility can be raised anytime and in any court even after a final judgment has been passed.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the state, submitted that though the claim of juvenility can be raised at any stage it cannot be raised repeatedly after it had been rejected once, a plea the court eventually accepted.