IN THE HIGH COURT OF UTTARAKHAND AT NAINITAL Criminal Appeal No.681 of 2001 (Old No.2027 of 2000) Rinku @ Inayat Ali ……. Appellant Versus The State ..…. Opposite party Dated: November 29, 2011 Sri Lokendra Dobhal, Advocate for the appellant Sri P.S. Bohara, Brief Holder for the State/opposite party Hon’ble Servesh Kumar Gupta , J. In compliance of the Court’s order dated 31.10.2011, Smt. Basanti Deopa, Principal, Government Primary School, Lohaghat (Champawat), who issued the certificate regarding the school leaving of appellant- Inayat Ali, has appeared before the Court along with the concerned register. The said register has been verified and the same appears to be genuine one. So, the Principal is discharged from her liability and she is permitted to leave the Court. Heard the learned counsel for the parties. Appellant/accused Rinku @ Inayat Ali was convicted u/s 326/34 IPC and asked to undergo five years’ R.I. The date of incident/crime is 31.3.1998 and the appellant’s date of birth, as per the certificate issued by the School, is 25.6.1983. This way, the age of the accused, at the time of the crime, was 14 years and 10 months and thus, he was a juvenile on the date of commission of crime. Learned counsel for the appellant has relied upon a precedent of Hon’ble Apex Court in the case of “Vaneet Kumar Gupta @ Dharminder Vs. State of Punjab reported in (2011) 1 SCC (Cri) 1092”, wherein another precedent of Hon’ble Apex Court in the case of “Bhola Bhagat Vs. State of Bihar reported 2 in (1997) 8 SCC 720” was followed. The Hon’ble Apex Court, in such eventuality, sustained the conviction of the appellant for the offence, for which he was found guilty by the Sessions Court, but since he had been major and a full grown up man, so the Court was of the view that it was not desirable nor proper to refer him to the Juvenile Justice Board. The similar situation exists in the instant appeal. So, in view of the above precedent, the appeal is dismissed on merits, thereby maintaining the conviction of the appellant Rinku @ Inayat Ali. But, it is allowed on the question of sentence and, accordingly, the sentence awarded by learned trial court is hereby set aside. (Servesh Kumar Gupta, J.) November 29, 2011 Rajeev Dang