JUDGMENT Hon’ble Karuna Nand Bajpayee, J.—This Criminal Writ Petition has been filed on behalf of the petitioners seeking the direction in the nature of certiorari for quashing the impugned order dated 1.2.2013 and 4.2.2013 in application No. 12 of 2013 and also the subsequent order dated 6.2.2013 passed by the learned Judicial Magistrate Chandauli in case Crime No. 02 of 2013 State v. Vivek and also praying for a direction to the respondent No. 5 to hand over the girl Sonal petitioner No. 2 to petitioner No. 1 who claims himself to be the husband of girl Sonal. 2. In brief the facts giving rise to the present controversy are like this : 3. An FIR was lodged against the petitioner Vivek alongwith some other co-accused under Sections 363 and 366 IPC. It was alleged in the FIR that one girl Km. Sonal had been enticed away by the petitioner No. 1 of this case. It seems that the petitioner approached this Court in order to get the FIR quashed. The Division Bench after hearing the matter passed an order on 17.1.2013. A number of directions were given vide this order. It was also directed that the girl Sonal shall be produced before the concerned Judicial Magistrate who shall get her medically examined in order to ascertain her age. It was further ordered that depending upon the findings arrived regarding her age some other consequential orders including appropriate orders regarding her custody shall be passed by the J.M. It appears that as a follow up action, the concerned J.M. heard the matter and got Sonal medically examined according to which her age was found to be about 19 years and above 18 years. It transpires from the record that during the proceedings that took place before the J.M. the father of the girl produced the high school certificate of the girl indicating her date of birth to be 25.5.96. Reckoning her age on the basis of the high school certificate she was estimated to be a minor by the J.M. 4. The J.M. has also recorded her statement in which she expressed her un-willingness to go alongwith her father. In fact she informed the Court to have willingly contracted marriage with petitioner No. 1 and denied all the allegations of coercion exercised against her. The J.M. has also recorded her statement in which she expressed her un-willingness to go alongwith her father. In fact she informed the Court to have willingly contracted marriage with petitioner No. 1 and denied all the allegations of coercion exercised against her. In the light of the finding of minority arrived at by the J.M. and in view of her complete disinclination to go alongwith her father, the J.M. concerned thought it fit to send her to Nari Niketan. 5. The respondent No. 4 who is father of the girl is being represented by his counsel and has also filed his counter-affidavit asserting the minority of the girl and also justifying the preference given to the certificate by the lower Court. According to him he is the lawful guardian of his minor daughter and as such she ought to have been given back to him. 6. I have heard both the sides and perused the record. 7. It has been emphasised by the counsel for the petitioner that though the assessment through medical examination is necessarily a flexible estimation of age and the medical science has not perfected itself to the extent that it may determine the age of any one with precise certitude. But when there is an estimate of age done by radiological examination it includes a maximum margin of error or margin of flexibility both ways. In different cases the Hon’ble Apex Court as well as this Court has accepted this margin of error. At times it has been accepted as six months both ways and at times one year both ways. Two year margin of error is the maximum that can be attributed to the age determined by the Doctor through medical examination. According to the counsel if the age of the victim is assessed to be 19 years according to the medical examination, she could be 18 and a half years old or 19 and half years old. This shall be so when we take the margin of flexibility to be six months both ways. Similarly if we take the margin of one year then she could be 18 years or 20 years of age or any where in between the two. According to the counsel even if we take the highest margin of flexibility both ways it cannot go beyond two years on the lower side and two years on the higher side. Similarly if we take the margin of one year then she could be 18 years or 20 years of age or any where in between the two. According to the counsel even if we take the highest margin of flexibility both ways it cannot go beyond two years on the lower side and two years on the higher side. On that reckoning the maximum that can be said is that the girl Sonal was not younger than 17 and not older than 21 years of age according to the medical examination. According to the counsel the medical science can certainly predict as to which age-group the person belongs. But in order to find out as to what is exact age within that age group as suggested by the medical science one can look for relevant documents or some other oral evidence. According to the counsel even if we accept the highest margin of error or flexibility this girl cannot be less than 17 years of age. In other words this medical report which shows Sonal to be about 19 years old at least proves one thing definitely that any evidence oral or documentary which attempts to indicate her age to be less than 17 is necessarily a false evidence. The falsity of oral or documentary evidence regarding age can be proved by medical science in many cases. According to the counsel though it is true that within the age group as suggested by medical science the age of a person can fall anywhere in between the two outer limits of any age group, and in such a case there will be no incompatibility between the radiologically determined age and the age suggested by other oral or documentary means, but the medical science can always disprove the falsely alleged age suggested by any one if the suggested age falls outside the maximum flexibility bracket. According to him even if we construe the medical report with the maximum margin of error on the lower side then too this high school certificate is a proved false document because it suggests the age of the girl on the relevant point of time to be even less than 17. According to the counsel this is not unknown in our society that the parents have a tendency to get the age of their offsprings recorded on the lower side. According to the counsel this is not unknown in our society that the parents have a tendency to get the age of their offsprings recorded on the lower side. However, reprehensible the practice be, according to the counsel it is a reality of the society. The counsel contends that the J.M. concerned has wholly ignored this aspect of medical science and seems to have attributed a divine status to the high school certificate. According to the counsel even if in certain contexts the high school certificate be given a preferential status it shall not mean that it is an infallible document. It’s truthfulness could always be proved or disproved through evidence. According to him in the present case the medical examination has completely falsified the suggested age of girl Sonal showing her to be less than 17 years of age. 8. I have carefully cogitated upon all the submissions made by rival sides. 9. The contention raised by the petitioner’s counsel seems to have substance. In fact a careful perusal of the radiological opinion would show that the doctor has categorically opined that the girl Sonal is above 18 years of age. After giving this radiological finding, the doctor has further considered her body growth, development and G-examination. Thereafter the age has been estimated to be about 19 years. In such a situation the margin of flexibility or the margin of error cannot be lowered any further below 18 years. There is a marked difference between ‘ about 18 years’ and ‘ above 18 years’ of age. Where the doctor has observed that the girl is above 18 years, that obviously means that the girl is not less than 18 years of age. Such an observation indicates the lower most outer limit of the flexibility bracket. Such kind of observation is made by the doctors on the basis of the fusion of certain bones of the body which cannot be completed before a person attains a particular age. If a fusion has already been completed which cannot be completed before attaining a particular age then it can safely be predicted by the radiological examination that a particular person has crossed certain age or is above that age. If a fusion has already been completed which cannot be completed before attaining a particular age then it can safely be predicted by the radiological examination that a particular person has crossed certain age or is above that age. In fact the margin of error is accepted by the radiological experts because of the individual variations which have been observed depending upon the geographical areas and the health conditions and nutrition of various individuals placed in different conditions and places. It is after enormous researches that the experts have concluded that a particular fusion of particular bone does not start before attaining a certain age any where by any one. Similarly a certain fusion cannot be completed before attaining a certain age. The individual age variations of a particular fusion are not and cannot be stretched beyond certain limits. There cannot be a limit less variation. It is only after considering all these factors that the doctor gives his opinion that a particular person has attained a particular age or not. A categorical opinion of the doctor that the girl Sonal is above 18 years of age concludes this issue completely & belies the contradictory age shown in the High School certificate. 10. The Court’s opinion is also supported by the observations made by Apex Court in the case Daya Chand v. Sahib Singh, 1991 Laws (S.C.) AIR (SC) 930, where the certificate of age was disbelieved for the reason of the same being in conflict with the medical evidence. The relevant portion of the citation may be quoted as thus: "..............In a case like this, the conflicting evidence of the record from the two schools is not safe to rely on, particularly when the medical opinion, based on radiological examination and other physical characteristics, is available for determining the age of Sahib Singh more accurately. The data available as a result of the medical examination, apart from the opinion of the doctors based on the medical examination, with reference to Modi’s Medical Jurisprudence, 21st Ed., shows that Sahib Singh’s age on 16.3.1989, the date of medical examination, must have been definitely above 19 years since the fusion of some of the bones which was found on that date, could not occur below the age of 19 years at the minimum. This would mean that on the date of the offence, he must have been definitely above the age of 18 years at least........................................ "............The tendency of many to have lesser age recorded in school is well-known and, therefore, the date of birth being recorded as 1.1.1973 in the other school, can be easily appreciated but cannot be accepted, because the same is clearly in conflict with the medical evidence. In this state of evidence, there was no justification for the High Court to have interfered with the concurrent finding of the Metropolitan Magistrate and the Additional Sessions Judge, that the age of Sahib Singh on 26.7.1988, the date of offence, was above 16 years on account of which he was not a juvenile." 11. The learned lower Court seems to have completely missed to gauge and appreciate all the above discussed crucially relevant facets of the matter in blissful ignorance of the hard core realities of the society. It simply did not attempt to enquire and test whether the age indicated in the certificate could at all be possible or be correct on the touchstone of the scientific medical data available or not. 12. If in a given case the falsity of the age indicated in the high school certificate is apparent on the face of record or is demonstrably repugnant to the conclusive radiological findings there is no reason why it should be ignored. It is not always that a conclusive medical report is available. More than often the medical report is inconclusive and admits of a wide flexibility bracket on both the sides. But if there is irreconcilable incompatibility, as is apparently present in this matter, it ought to have been duly considered and adjudged by the lower Court. 13. In the last. the respondents counsel has made a faint half hearted attempt to persuade this Court to ignore the radiological findings given by the doctor on the ground that the division bench might not have directed the medical examination of the girl in case her high school certificate had been produced before that Court. This contention cannot be accepted for many reasons. Firstly it is very difficult to hazard the opinion as what the Court might have done in a given situation. This contention cannot be accepted for many reasons. Firstly it is very difficult to hazard the opinion as what the Court might have done in a given situation. After all it is not unknown that many a time the Court in its wisdom thinks it expedient to direct the medical examination even when the documents regarding the age are very much available. It is often so when the physical appearance of the person concerned looks demonstrably incompatible with the age suggested by the documents. No document including a high school certificate, can be deemed to have precluded the Court from making further enquiry about its correctness or genuineness or truthfulness. How can the Court be divested of its powers to direct medical examination of anybody including the girl, just because a high school certificate has been produced! At any rate, instead of anticipating and dwelling upon such non events, this Court does not see any good reason to blind itself to the radiological and medical examination of the girl which is already on record. There is nothing on record, nor has been even suggested by the respondent’s counsel, that the doctor who did the medical examination of the girl could have had any motive to falsely prepare such a report or that the findings recorded by him are not correct. All the legal and logical implications of the medical report must be allowed to follow it. 14. In view of the statement of the Girl given before the J.M. refuting all the allegations of coercion exercised by the petitioner No. 1, showing her complete willingness and approval to her marital status with the petitioner No. 1 which according to her she has already been enjoying, considering her blatant refusal to go alongwith her father, and also keeping in view the observations made by the Apex Court and giving due weight to the irreconcilable conflict of the age shown in High School certificate with the age given in medical examination referred to above, I think that the continuation of Sonal’s detention in Nari Niketan is not justified. I therefore, direct that she be set at liberty with immediate affect. 15. The impugned orders of the lower Court concerned are quashed. 16. Petition succeeds. 17. Let a copy of this order be sent to the Court concerned forthwith for necessary compliance by the quickest mode available. —————