In Brief
In this 2019 Supreme Court judgment, the appellant Pratap Singh was convicted of culpable homicide (Section 304 Part II IPC) along with another accused for the death of Rajesh Sah during a group assault in June 1995. The key issues were: (1) whether the appellant was a juvenile entitled to Juvenile Justice Act protection, and (2) whether the 10-year sentence was excessive. The Court held that the appellant's Secondary School Certificate from 1993 conclusively established his date of birth as 13 June 1977, making him over 18 years old by a few days on the incident date, thus denying juvenile status. On sentencing, applying proportionality principles, the Court reduced the sentence to time already served, noting the spontaneous nature of the assault, absence of premeditation, and no prior criminal record.
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