Rajballabh Prasad @ Rajballabh Yadav vs The State Of Bihar on 14 August, 2025
In this regard the law is well settled inasmuch as
the Hon'ble Apex Court has held in a judgment rendered in the
case of Jarnail Singh (supra) that in case neither the
matriculation/equivalent certificates are available nor the date of
birth certificate from the school first attended is available nor
the birth certificate given by a Corporation or a Municipal
Authority or a Panchayat is present, medical opinion is required
to be sought for from a duly constituted Medical Board which is
required to declare the age of the juvenile or a child. In the
present case we find that a Medical Board was constituted, as
aforesaid, which had examined the prosecutrix on 17.02.2016
and furnished a medical report, opining therein that on the basis
of physical, dental, radiological and pathological examination,
the age of the prosecutrix is in between 16 to 17 years. As far as
the medical report dated 17.02.2016 is concerned, we find that
no Radiologist was a part of the Medical Board, hence neither
radiological test was conducted nor expert opinion of the
Radiologist was sought for, which is not only important but also
conclusive in determining the age of the prosecutrix on the basis
of ossification test and reliance was placed merely on a set of x-
ray plates pertaining to some purported x-ray of the prosecutrix
got done at some other hospital, however there is no proof on
Patna High Court CR. APP (DB) No.224 of 2019 dt.14-08-2025
234/315
record to show that the same pertains to the prosecutrix, hence a
doubt is created regarding the entire process of age
determination of the prosecutrix. We also find that though PW-
10 (Dental Surgeon & Member of the Medical Board), in his
evidence, has stated that since the third molar of the prosecutrix
had not come out, her age is less than 17 years, however page
no. 280 of the Modi's Medical Jurisprudence and Toxicology,
23rd Addition, relied upon by the appellants shows that third
molar or wisdom teeth can erupt any time in between 17th to 25th
years of age thus the said opinion of PW-10 cannot be relied
upon.