Justice B D Agarwal issued the guidelines while delivering judgement in the case of a 13-year old girl, who was allegedly kidnapped under the garb of elopement.
The judge, who delivered the verdict yesterday, came down heavily on investigating agencies for conducting probe in a casual manner.
The court held that while recording statements of minor girls, judicial magistrates should cause a preliminary enquiry to ascertain the correct age of the victims.
Due to their immaturity, minor and adolescent girls are easy prey and are brain-washed to such an extent that they speak in favour of the accused and suppress their actual age.
He also directed the magistrates to record their statements after giving them sufficient time for reflection to neutralise the emotional bonding with the accused.
Justice Agarwal observed that kidnapping or procuring adolescent girls for marriage or sexual acts not only affects the girls' health but also shatters their dreams in life.
On the particular case, the judge rejected the bail plea of the accused and directed that the statement of the victim be recorded afresh after keeping her in an Observation Home for at least five days.
The court ordered that as the accused had claimed that they had married before a qazi, administrative action should be taken against the doctors and the qazi for issuing incorrect age certificate and registering the marriage, without proper proof of age.
