No need for ossification test if age proof docus exist: HC

Bhopal/Jabalpur: Dismissing a petition of two persons sentenced to 20 years of rigorous imprisonment by a POCSO court in 2015 on charges of gangrape with a minor in Satna district of MP, a division bench of MP high court has reiterated that ossification test of a rape survivor to ascertain her age is only necessary when relavant documents to show her age as required under law are not available. Otherwise, police not getting ossification test done despite recommendation of the doctor examining the survivor doesn't make any difference to the case, the court said. The MP high court in a similar case had taken an identical stand in the past as well. The bench of Justice Vivek Agarwal and Justice RCS Bisen in their judgment on March 17, 2026, on criminal revision petition filed by Kailash Kol and Kamlesh, convicted by a special POCSO court in Satna district to 20 years of rigorous imprisonment, said that the main argument advanced by counsel for the appellant is that prosecution witness Dr Alka Mahule had examined the victim medically and had advised for conducting x-ray and as per x-ray report, victim's, age was between 17 to 18 years .thus, the victim be considered to be above 18 years of age.The judges said "In the present case, we have before us two documents which support the case of the prosecutrix that she was below 16 years of age at the time when the incident took place. These documents can be used for ascertaining the age of the prosecutrix as per Rule 12(3)(b). Therefore, the trial court was right in relying on those documents."The ossification test becomes necessary only in cases where documents mentioned under sub-section (2) of section 94 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 are not available.