'He Was Juvenile In 1988': Man, Now 53, Gets 3 Years' Punishment For Rape

Thirty-seven years after he raped an 11-year-old girl, a 53-year-old man has been referred to the Juvenile Justice Board after the Supreme Court found he was a juvenile at the time of the incident. The Board can send the man to a special home for a maximum of three years.

A bench of Chief Justice of India BR Gavai and Justice Augustine George Masih was hearing the man's challenge to his conviction by the trial court and the Rajasthan High Court. The lower court had convicted him under Section 342 (wrongful confinement) and Section 376 (rape) and sentenced him to a three-year jail term. The high court upheld this.

The counsel for the accused told the Supreme Court, for the first time in the case, that the accused was a juvenile at the time of the incident, which occurred in the Ajmer district on November 17, 1988.

The court noted that the prosecution's case is not just based on the survivor's testimony, but "amply supported by the statements of other witnesses and corroborating medical evidence, all of which collectively establish the case of the prosecution". The court said the findings about the conviction "stand duly established beyond doubt," and the earlier judgments cannot be faulted. 

The court said the convict's claim that he was a juvenile at the time of the incident was found to be correct. While the Rajasthan government counsel objected to the convict seeking relief as a juvenile after so many years, the top court noted that earlier judgments have "categorically held that the plea of juvenility can be raised before any court and has to be recognised at any stage, even after disposal of the case". "Consequently, the sentence as imposed by the Trial Court and upheld by the High Court will have to be set aside, as the same cannot sustain," the court said.

The bench referred the matter to the Juvenile Justice Board for appropriate orders. The board can send the 53-year-old man to a special home for a maximum of three years.