<span style="color: #222222;">Supreme Court today ordered release of a convict from jail, awarded life term for killing his cousin in 1980, after finding that he was a juvenile at the time of the crime. </span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">The top court took into account a report of Additional District and Sessions Judge of Gaya in Bihar, submitted on 27th March this year, which said that the accused was 17 years and six months of age on the date of commission of offence.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"><br />'' A three-judge bench of Justices N V Ramana, M M Shantanagoudar and Ajay Rastogi, said that after taking into consideration the fact that the accused was below 18 years old at the time of offence and according to the law prevailing as on today, the appellant is entitled to the benefit of juvenility.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"><br />'' On 13th December last year, the apex court had asked the Sessions Court in Gaya to determine whether the accused was a juvenile on the date of commission of the offence of murder during intervening night between 23rd and 24th August, 1980 and submit a report to it. </span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"><br />'' The trial court held the accused guilty of his cousin's murder under Section 302 (murder) of IPC on 17th February, 1988 and sentenced him to undergo life imprisonment. The accused challenged the order of the trial court before the high court which dismissed his appeal.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"><br />'' In 2010, the accused challenged the high court's dismissal order before the apex court contending that he was below 18-years of age at the time of commission of offence. </span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">In his plea he has contended that as the applicable law at the time of commission of the offence was the Bihar Children Act, 1970, which granted protection to all children below the age of 18 years, the trial court should have considered the accused as a beneficiary of the same.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"><br />'' Bihar Government which challenged his appeal had contended that the accused was over 16 years of age on the date of commission of the offence and therefore,could not be treated as a juvenile as per the provisions of the Juvenile Justice Act, 1986.</span><br />''