Overview
- Setting aside an Allahabad High Court directive, Justices Sanjay Karol and N. Kotiswar Singh held that determining a victim’s age is a trial issue guided by the Juvenile Justice Act’s documentary-first hierarchy.
- The bench directed circulation of its judgment to the Law Secretary to consider a Romeo–Juliet clause for close-in-age adolescent relationships and a mechanism to prosecute deliberate misuse of POCSO.
- The ruling clarified that high courts cannot use Section 439 bail jurisdiction to mandate investigative protocols, and that medical age tests are a last resort only when prescribed documents are unavailable.
- In a separate case, Justices B. V. Nagarathna and R. Mahadevan cancelled bail for a Shamli accused of repeated penetrative assault, ordered surrender within two weeks, and directed an expedited trial.
- The Supreme Court stressed that victim safety and risks of evidence tampering or witness influence must guide bail decisions, while leaving certain previously granted bails intact where only procedural directions were overturned.