Uttarakhand HC Acquits Murder Convict, Finding Him A Juvenile During The Crime
The appellant's lawyer argued before the court that the Haridwar-Roorkee Additional District and Sessions Court had ignored his client's age while awarding a life sentence.
Published : January 6, 2026 at 3:57 PM IST
Nainital: The Uttarakhand High Court on Tuesday ordered the acquittal of a murder convict, as he was a juvenile when the crime was committed.
The court was hearing the 2003 robbery and murder case in Haridwar's Roorkee, in which three accused were awarded a life sentence by the Additional District and Sessions Court of Haridwar-Roorkee. Listening to the arguments, the court overturned the life sentence of one of the accused, as he was a minor at the time the crime was committed.
The accused had filed an appeal from jail, stating that he was a minor at the time of the incident. This information was passed on to the High Court by the jail administration on June 15, 2021. During the hearing on August 19, 2025, the court directed the judicial registrar to ascertain his age, for which witnesses and his school certificate were examined.
The investigation revealed his date of birth to be May 22, 1988. During the hearing, his lawyer argued that according to Section 7(a) of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, the issue of minority can be raised in any court, at any stage, at any time, even after the case has been settled.
The lawyer also stated that the accused was a minor at the time of the incident, which was not considered by the lower court while imprisoning him for 13 years, and hence, he should be released immediately. He cited the Supreme Court judgments acquitting convicts in several similar cases and requested that his client should also be given the benefit of this precedent.
After hearing the arguments, the division bench of Justices Ravindra Maithani and Ashish Naithani ordered the jail administration to release the convict immediately.
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