IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA Cr.Misc. No.17932 of 2011 ALOK KUMAR DUBEY Versus THE STATE OF BIHAR ----------- 2. 13.6.2011 Heard. A prayer has been made on behalf of the petitioner under Section 438 Cr. P.C. for grant of anticipatory bail in Gaurichak P.S.Case No. 44 of 2011. It does not appear from the rejection order that the petitioner had raised a plea of being a Juvenile before the learned Sessions Judge, Patna, when he had preferred anticipatory bail application no. 2033 of 2011. However, the attention of the Court was drawn to annexure-3 which is the admission card issued in favour of the petitioner by the Bihar School Examination Board, Patna, permitting him to appear at the Secondary Examination, 2011 which was to commence from 23.2.2011. As per entries in respect of the date of birth made in annexure-3, the petitioner appears to be born on 5.8.1996 and, thereby, claims himself to be around 16 years of age. If this could be the plea and if this could be the age which has been pointed out to the Court by placing the record admissible under the relevant rules framed under the Juvenile Justice( Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000, the Court simply parts with the jurisdiction under Section 438 Cr. P.C. in view of the fact that there is a complete bar of entertaining such a petition in the light of Section 4 of the Cr,. P.C. which reads as under:- 2 “Trial of offences under the Indian Penal Code and other laws.-(1) All offences under the Indian Penal Code (45 of 1860) shall be investigated, inquired into, tried, and otherwise dealt with according to the provisions hereinafter contained. (2) All offences under any other law shall be investigated, inquired into, tried, and otherwise dealt with according to the same provisions, but subject to any enactment for the time being in force regulating the manner or place of investigating, inquiring into, trying or otherwise dealing with such offences. It hardly requires to be pointed out that the Juvenile Justice ( Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000 is a social beneficial legislation which targets special segment of offenders who are defined as juveniles as contained in Section 2(l) of the said Act which lays down full-fledged procedure as to how the inquiry has to be made, how the prayer for release of such accused shall be entertained and it further creates different jurisdictions in the form of Juvenile Justice Boards which are established in every Judgeship. This is the reason that I have indicated that this Court has to part with the present petition as the same could not be maintained under the general provision of Section 438 Cr. P.C. as there is special provision by virtue of Section 12 of the said Act. In that view, this petition stands dismissed as not maintainable. However, the petitioner has to appear before the Juvenile Board and has to agitate the point which he has raised in this petition before it so that the Juvenile Justice Board, Patna embarks upon an inquiry under Section 49 of the Act so as to reaching a conclusion as regards the claim of the petitioner of 3 being a juvenile. I hold the view that, if such a plea is raised and the case appears of such class as necessitating holding of an inquiry, due to the case of the accused being covered by the term ‘ apparently appears to be a juvenile’ as appears in Section 12 of the Act, then it shall be advisable to the Juvenile Justice Boards that they should not remand such an accused to custody rather they should require the parents of such an accused to execute a bond and release the person on execution of bond by their parents for such period as may be consumed in holding the inquiry and rendering a decision on the plea of juvenility as raised before it. I direct the Juvenile Justice Board, Patna, to abide by the above observation of mine as soon as the petitioner appears to raise a plea of being a juvenile before it and not to remand him to custody till the Board has finally concluded the inquiry and has recorded its finding. It may, in the alternative, ask the parents of the petitioner to execute bond as per its satisfaction and release him. This petition is disposed of with the above observation. Let this order be communicated to the Juvenile Justice Board, Patna, in connection with Gaurichak P.S.Case No. 44 of 2011, through fax at the cost of the petitioner. Kanth ( Dharnidhar Jha, J.)