New Delhi: The Bombay High Court has ordered the release of a 36-year-old rape convict after finding that he was a juvenile at the time of the crime, nearly two decades ago.
The judgement was passed on 21 February by a bench comprising justices A.S. Gadkari and Shyam C. Chandak. It observed, “It is an admitted fact that the applicant has already undergone more than three years of actual imprisonment. In view thereof, the applicant/petitioner is entitled to be released from jail forthwith.”
Pintu Ramdaras Chauhan was convicted under Section 376 of the Indian Penal Code for a crime committed in January 2005. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in December 2005 by the trial court. He has since been lodged in the Nashik Road Central Prison and had not even challenged his conviction or sentence.
However, on the completion of 14 years in jail, he filed an application for premature release, according to the terms of policy of the state government, but his application was rejected in November 2019. He then knocked on the Bombay High Court’s door in 2021.
While this petition challenging the refusal of remission was pending before the high court, Chauhan filed an interim application claiming he was a juvenile at the time of the crime.
He presented his school leaving certificate issued by his institution in Bankati Vasti in Uttar Pradesh to support his claim. The high court in July 2022 directed the state government to verify the claim.
Police authorities conducted an inquiry and filed an affidavit in the court in August last year. This affidavit said the school in question was recognised by the Uttar Pradesh government and that the headmaster had issued the certificate.
Armed with this, Chauhan’s lawyer then told the court that his date of birth was 16 April 1988, and therefore, he was aged about 16 years and 9 months at the time of the crime. He said the provisions of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2015 should apply to him. Under the law, a juvenile can undergo a maximum of three years of custody.
The court agreed and ordered Chauhan to be released from jail.
(Edited by Tikli Basu)
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