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(i), the matriculation or equivalent certificate was given precedence, and it was only in the event of the certificate not being available that the date of birth certificate from 2025:HHC:40217 the school first attended could be obtained. In Section 94(2)(i), both the date of birth certificate from the school, as well as the matriculation or equivalent certificate, are placed in the same category.

Authority or Panchayat and it is only thereafter in the absence of these such documents the age is to be determined through "an ossification test" or "any other latest medical age determination test" conducted on the orders of the concerned authority, i.e. Committee or Board or Court. In the present case, concededly, only a transfer certificate and not the date of birth certificate, of matriculation or equivalent certificate was considered. Ex. C1, i.e., the school transfer certificate, showed the date of birth of the victim as 11.07.1997. Significantly, the transfer rt certificate was produced not by the prosecution but instead by the court-summoned witness, i.e., CW-1. The burden is always upon the prosecution to establish what it alleges;

16. Speaking about provisions of the Juvenile Justice Act, rt especially the various options in Section 94(2) of the JJ Act, this court held in Sanjeev Kumar Gupta v. The State of Uttar Pradesh (2019) 9 SCR 735 that:

"Clause (i) of Section 94(2) places the date of birth certificate from the school and the matriculation or equivalent certificate from the concerned examination board in the same category (namely (i) above). In the absence thereof, category (ii) provides for obtaining the birth certificate of the corporation, municipal authority or panchayat. It is only in the absence of (i) and (ii) that age determination by means of medical analysis is provided. Section 94(2)(a)(i) indicates a significant change over the provisions which were contained in Rule 12(3)(a) of the Rules of 2007 made under the Act of 2000. Under Rule 12(3)(a)(i), the matriculation or equivalent certificate was given precedence, and it was only in the event of the certificate not being available that the date of birth certificate from the school first attended could be obtained. In Section 94(2)(i), both the date of birth certificate from the school, as well as the matriculation or equivalent certificate, are placed in the same category.

test to determine the age of the juvenile. The certificate of the Meerut Municipal Corporation was issued on 08.06.2020, before the date of the incident. In any event, it was not open to the JJB to go behind the available school certificate or the birth certificate of the Corporation and record evidence to examine the correctness or otherwise of of such certificate. This is not the mandate of Section 94(2) of the JJ Act, 2015. Therefore, the learned Additional District and Sessions Judge was justified in reversing such a decision of the JJB. Learned Additional District and rt Sessions Judge gave preference to the date of birth of respondent No. 2 mentioned in the high school certificate, wherein his date of birth was mentioned as 08.09.2003. Thus, respondent No. 2 was 17 years, 3 months, 10 days on the date of the incident. Accordingly, he was declared a juvenile delinquent.