MP High Court Finds Minor Girl's Age Records Suppressed, Orders DGP Probe

The Madhya Pradesh High Court has refused to release a 17-year-old girl from a One Stop Centre and hand her custody to a man who claimed she was a major and wished to live with him, while at the same time raising serious concerns about the conduct of a school principal and a police officer who allegedly suppressed material records relating to her age.

A Division Bench of Justice G.S. Ahluwalia and Justice Anuradha Shukla, hearing a habeas corpus petition filed by Ravi Prajapati, held that the girl was still a minor and would continue to stay at the One Stop Centre in Guna until she attained majority. The Court clarified that after becoming an adult, she would be free to live according to her own wishes.

The case arose from a plea claiming that the girl had earlier refused to return to her parents and was being kept at the One Stop Centre despite having attained majority. The petitioner relied on a school certificate that had previously helped him secure an acquittal in a criminal case by creating doubt about the girl's age.

When the matter came up before the Court, the girl's parents disputed the claim and asserted that her date of birth was February 10, 2009. They produced multiple documents, including birth records and papers issued under the Ladli Laxmi Yojana, all reflecting the same date of birth.

The Bench then directed production of the original case diary and school admission records. On examining the material, the Court found that the school's admission register initially carried a different date of birth but that the entry had been corrected in September 2015 to February 10, 2009 on the basis of supporting documents.

According to the Court, the principal of Naveen Vidhya Mandir Higher Secondary School, Guna, issued a certificate based on the earlier unamended entry while failing to disclose the corrected records. The Bench observed that the amended register clearly reflected the revised date of birth.

The Court also noted that there was nothing in the case diary to show that the investigating officer made any meaningful effort to collect educational records from the girl's parents. The mother had claimed that such documents had in fact been supplied to the police.

Making strong observations, the Bench said it appeared that both the investigating officer and the school principal had “played fraud on the Court by suppressing the material documents with a solitary intention to facilitate the accused by raising a doubt regarding age of corpus.”

The judges recorded that every relevant document before them, including birth certificates, government records and the corrected school register, showed the girl's date of birth as February 10, 2009. The Court observed that the prosecution had “deliberately created a situation where the Court was compelled to give a finding that prosecution has failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that corpus was minor on the date of offence.”

Holding that the girl remained a minor for the purposes of the writ proceedings, the Court rejected the request to release her into the petitioner's custody. It ordered that she continue residing at the One Stop Centre until she becomes a major.

The Bench further directed the Director General of Police to examine whether action should be initiated against the principal and the investigating officer. Stressing the importance of protecting minor girls, the Court remarked that if police officers display a hostile attitude in such cases, authorities must consider “whether such Police Officers should be allowed to go scot free or not.”

The Director General of Police has been asked to take a decision within one month and submit a report before the High Court. The Court also directed that a copy of its order be placed before the Bench hearing the State's pending appeal against the petitioner's acquittal. The order may also influence consideration of additional evidence in the criminal appeal already pending before court.

Case Title: Ravi Prajapati v. The State of Madhya Pradesh and Others

Date of Order: July 7, 2026

Bench: Justice G.S. Ahluwalia and Justice Anuradha Shukla