In Brief
A death row convict imprisoned for 28 years successfully claimed juvenility after challenging his conviction. The Court found that despite being tried as "Narayan," his true name was "Niranaram," established through school records showing his father was Chetanram and his date of birth as 1 February 1982. This made him only 12.5 years old at the time of the 1994 murder of five women and two children. The Court held that once the applicant produced reliable school certificates, the State had to provide compelling contradictory evidence to disprove them—which it failed to do. The Court rejected the State's arguments about document fabrication as mere nitpicking. It found that juvenility pleas can be raised at any stage, even after conviction, and that school records are the primary evidence for age determination under law. The death sentence was invalidated and the applicant was ordered released.
The lawyer headnote and full judgment text are available to registered users.