The Sikkim High Court has upheld a man’s conviction and 20-year prison term under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, finding that the prosecution proved the survivor was a child when the offences occurred.
A division bench of Chief Justice A. Muhamed Mustaque and Justice Bhaskar Raj Pradhan rejected the appellant’s argument that the survivor’s age had not been properly established. The original birth certificate was corroborated by school admission records, the hospital’s live-birth register and testimony from the relevant officials.
The court said a birth certificate issued under the Registration of Births and Deaths Act is a public document carrying a presumption of correctness. The defence neither challenged the material entries during cross-examination nor produced evidence to rebut them.
The bench held that prosecutors must establish minority whenever an accused faces a POCSO charge and found that requirement satisfied on the record. It therefore declined to disturb the conviction for aggravated penetrative sexual assault and retained the 20-year term, which it noted was the statutory minimum under Section 6.