Can raise defence of juvenility even after conviction, says Supreme Court

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday reiterated that the defence of juvenility can be raised even after conviction and asked the Uttar Pradesh government to examine juvenility claims of 23 prisoners in Agra jail, few of whom have already spent 20 years behind bars.
A bench of Justices Indira Banerjee and J K Maheshwari said delay in raising the juvenile claim cannot be a reason to dismiss the plea and asked the state governemnt to verify their claim within a month.
A bench headed by Justice Banerjee had passed a similar order in July and granted interim bail to 13 prisoners of Agra central jail who spent around 20 years in prison and were not released despite them being recently declared juvenile at the time of committing offence.
The convicts had not taken the defence of juvenility due to ignorance during the trial in which they were convicted and it came to light when their ages were examined on the direction of the Allahabad high court. The high court had passed the direction in 2012 and ordered the Juvenile Justice Board to hold an inquiry for determination of the age of such prisoners who were languishing in different jails in the state who were alleged to be juvenile at the time of committing offence.
The Board after holding inquiry passed orders on various dates since 2017 declaring several prisoners juveniles at the time of commiting offence and 13 of these prisoners in Agra jail were also declared juvenile. They, however, continued to languish in jail as the state government did not take any action even after the Board declared them juvenile.