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Ossification test at the age of 55!

KT NEWS SERVICE. Dated: 2/27/2021 3:53:37 PM

NEW DELHI, Feb 26: An ossification test conducted on an accused at the age of 55 cannot be used to declare him a juvenile on the date of crime in the absence of reliable medical evidence, the Supreme Court held on Friday.
A Bench of Justices Rohinton Fali Nariman, Hemant Gupta and B R Gavai expressed surprise at the ossification tests to determine the age of the person on the date of incident since such tests cannot yield trustworthy and reliable results.
It said such a test can be relevant to determine the approximate age of a person when he is around 18 years of age, but not when the person is around 40-55 years of age since the structure of bones cannot be helpful in determining the age.
"Therefore, in the absence of any reliable, trustworthy medical evidence to find out the age of the appellant, the ossification test conducted in the yar 2020 when the appellant was 55 years of age cannot be conclusive to declare him as a juvenile or not on the date of the incident," the judgment said.
It came on an appeal by a murder convict, challenging the April 2020 Allahabad High Court verdict upholding his conviction. Ram Vijay Singh filed an application before the Apex Court tht he was a juvenile on the date of the crime on July 20, 1982.
In support, he relied upon the family register maintained by the panchayat, his Aadhaar card and the High Court order in 1982, granting him bail on the basis of the report of the radiologist that his age at that time was between 15 and 17 years.
The top court, however, dismissed his appeal, noting that the date of birth mentioned by him as December 30, 1961 to procure the licence of a single barrel gun on July 24, 1982, four days after the crime shows that he was not a juvenile but aged 21 at the time of the crime.