On November 16, 2022, the Supreme Court overturned the orders of the Chief Judicial Magistrate of Kathua and the Jammu and Kashmir High Court, which held that one of the accused in the Kathua rape-murder case was a juvenile, and ordered that the accused, Shubham Sangra, be tried as an adult.

A bench comprised of Justices Ajay Rastogi and JB Pardiwala granted the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir's appeal against the orders of the CJM and the High Court.

"It is held that the respondent accused was not a juvenile at the time of the commission of the offence and should be tried the way other co-accused were tried in accordance with law",

The case involves the gang-rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl in Kathua village in 2019. In this case, a Special Court in Pathankot sentenced three men to life in prison in June 2019. The Court also sentenced three police officers to five years in prison for destroying evidence. Shubham Sangra's case was transferred to the Juvenile Justice Board. Shubham Sangra was the nephew of the main accused, Sanji Ram, the caretaker of the temple where the crime occurred. The Supreme Court had transferred the case's trial from Kathua to Pathanktot in Punjab due to lawyers' obstruction of justice in protest of the police arresting the accused.

Case: The State of Jammu and Kashmir (now U.T. of Jammu and Kashmir) and Ors versus Shubam Sangra

Citation: Crl.A. No. 1928/2022