The Allahabad High Court has permitted a woman to leave court with her husband after finding, for purposes of a habeas corpus petition, that the available statutory evidence treated her as an adult.
Her family relied on a Class V transfer certificate stating that she was born in 2010. The court said no school birth certificate, matriculation record or municipal certificate was produced in the hierarchy prescribed by section 94 of the Juvenile Justice Act. An ossification test assessed her age at about 18.
The 5 October 2026 order allowed the petition but expressly insulated the pending POCSO trial: its factual observations cannot be used by the defence or considered by the trial court. A copy was also sent to the Law Commission amid broader concerns about cases involving marriage and young families.