PRAYAGRAJ, Oct. 29 -- The Allahabad high court has held that under the Juvenile Justice Act 2015, an accused, who claims to be a child at time of commission of offence, cannot be sent to jail or police lockup even during an inquiry regarding determination of his age either by a court or the Juvenile Justice Board. In doing so, the court held that a child in conflict with law or alleged to be in conflict with law cannot be lodged in jail till they attain 21 years of age. A division bench comprising Justice Salil Kumar Rai and Justice Sandeep Jain observed, "A perusal of section 10 shows that in no case can a child in conflict with law be placed in a police lock up or lodged in a jail. A person who claims himself to be a child under the Act, 2015 cannot be lodged in a jail or police lockup even during inquiry regarding his age either by the court or the board." The court said that section 9(4) the JJ Act states that a person who claims before a court that he was a child on the date the offence was committed is required to be kept in protective custody during the process of inquiry. The court, while inquiring into his claim, may place him in a place of safety. "In short, a child in conflict with law or alleged to be in conflict with law cannot be lodged in a jail till he attains twenty one years of age either during the inquiry regarding determination of his age or when he is found to be a child in conflict with law," the bench said. The judgment dated September 25 came to light on Tuesday. It was alleged that the petitioner along with his elder brother and mother had killed the eldest brother. All accused were arrested and detained in Naini Central Jail since 2017. During the trial, the petitioner claimed that he was a juvenile. Thereafter, the matter was referred to the Juvenile Justice Board which held the petitioner to be of 14 years, 3 months and 19 days old on the date of the offence....