# Allahabad High Court flags forged school certificates in POCSO cases 2026-08-22T10:49:03+00:00 | Governance | Indian Opinion Desk Corroboration: 1 independent outlet The Allahabad High Court has directed the Uttar Pradesh Principal Secretary of Basic Education to issue guidelines within two months for issuing school date-of-birth certificates, after flagging the misuse of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act through forged documents. The court observed that parents of victims submit forged school certificates to show victims as minors, leading to false implication of young boys. A bench of Justice Arun Kumar Singh Deshwal made the observation while granting bail in a POCSO case where contradictory age evidence emerged. The victim's ossification test indicated she was between 18 and 20 years, but a school leaving certificate showed her date of birth as November 12, 2012. The headmaster of the school that allegedly issued the transfer certificate stated the victim was never enrolled there, and the certificate was forged. The court noted that under Section 94(2) of the Juvenile Justice Act, age determination must first rely on school or matriculation certificates, then birth certificates from municipal authorities, and only in their absence on ossification tests. The court said the absence of a prescribed format for issuing such certificates had been widely misused, resulting in the false implication of several young boys. The bail was granted to the applicant, Shivam Yadav, who had no criminal history. ## Indian Opinion Analysis The Allahabad High Court's directive addresses a systemic gap: no standard format exists for schools to issue date-of-birth certificates for students who have not passed Class 10, leaving room for forgery. The Juvenile Justice Act's hierarchy of age proof places school certificates above medical tests, making forged documents legally powerful. This order could force the Uttar Pradesh government to create a verifiable process, potentially affecting hundreds of pending POCSO cases where age is disputed. The next step is the two-month deadline for the Principal Secretary to issue guidelines. ## Coverage - livelaw.in Straight reporting of court order and observations without editorializing or taking sides. This story was synthesised by AI from the source linked above. Tags: Allahabad High Court, Arun Kumar Singh Deshwal, Juvenile Justice Act, POCSO Act, Uttar Pradesh Canonical: https://indianopinion.org/allahabad-high-court-flags-forged-school-certificates-in-pocso-cases/ License: Summary and commentary (c) Indian Opinion, reusable with attribution. Facts belong to the linked sources. Cite: https://indianopinion.org/allahabad-high-court-flags-forged-school-certificates-in-pocso-cases/#story-in-brief Review state: restored archive article, accurate at time of publication, not offered to search indexes. How this brief was made: an AI model read the report linked above and wrote this summary and analysis, which were published automatically. Published briefs are sampled every hour by an automated quality check; the editor verifies its findings and approves corrections, and corrected briefs carry a dated correction line. We do no original reporting. Methodology: https://indianopinion.org/ai-use-policy/