“Court required to consider the upper side of the estimated age of the victim where age is proved through ossification test”: Delhi High Court
July 2, 2024 2024-07-13 5:44“Court required to consider the upper side of the estimated age of the victim where age is proved through ossification test”: Delhi High Court
“Court required to consider the upper side of the estimated age of the victim where age is proved through ossification test”: Delhi High Court
By Astha Bhumish Shah
The Delhi High Court held that in POCSO Cases where the Court is required to determine the age of the victim based on “Bone Age Ossification Report”, it must consider the upper age given in the ‘reference age’ to be the ‘age of the victim’. It further held that the principle of “margin of error” will be applicable in such cases. In the present case, there was no school record or birth certificate available to determine the age of the victim, hence the Court allowed for the conduction of “Bone Age Ossification Test”. In the report of the same, the victims age was reported at between 16 to 18 years. While the POCSO Act does not provide for a procedure to adjudicate and evaluate the age of a child, the Court agreed with prior rulings which provided that such methods might not provide precise results and hence a margin of error should be allowed. (Court on its own motion v. State of NCT of Delhi – CRL.REF. 2/2024)
