Supreme Court - Daily Orders
Md. Azam Ansari vs Union Of India on 24 February, 2016
Bench: Chief Justice, Uday Umesh Lalit
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IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA
CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION
CRL.MP. NO.3364 OF 2016
IN
CRIMINAL APPEAL D.NO.6200 OF 2016
MD. AZAM ANSARI Appellant(s)
/Respondent(s)
VERSUS
UNION OF INDIA AND ORS. Respondent(s)
O R D E R
Leave granted.
The appellant was tried, convicted and sentenced to imprisonment for a period of one year by the District Court Martial on among others the charge that he was a deserter. The Confirming Authority however reduced the sentence awarded to the appellant from one year to six months. Aggrieved the appellant preferred an appeal before the Central Government in terms of Section 161(2) of the Air Force Act, 1950 which too failed and was dismissed by the Central Government in terms of an order dated 01.09.2011. In the meantime the sentence awarded to the appellant had been suspended by the High Court of Delhi in a petition filed under Section 226 of the Constitution of India. With the dismissal of the appeal Signature Not Verified Digitally signed by ASHOK RAJ SINGH by the Central Government the appellant appears to have Date: 2016.03.03 16:59:05 IST Reason: filed an appeal under Section 15 of the Armed Forces Tribunal Act, 2007 before the Principal Bench of the 2 Tribunal at Delhi. Two applications were then made by the appellant before the Tribunal in which he prayed for a declaration that the remainder of the sentence has been undergone by him and that in case the said sentence period is not counted towards the period of sentence already undergone by him, the said sentence should be reduced to the period already undergone. In the alternative the appellant also prayed for eight weeks' time to surrender to custody for winding up the professional commitments as he had in the meantime joined the Bar as a practicing lawyer. The appellant in the application for clarification filed on 15.01.2016 also prayed for suspension of the remainder of the sentence awarded to the appellant. The Tribunal has upon consideration of the prayer made in the said application declined to grant relief prayed for while leaving it open to the appellant to make a fresh application for suspension of sentence. While doing so the Tribunal does not appear to have noticed the prayer made in the application dated 15.01.2016 wherein the appellant had specifically prayed for suspension of the remainder of the sentence awarded to him.
Learned counsel for the respondent in the above backdrop contends that the matter could be remitted back to the Tribunal to consider the prayer for suspension of sentence. We however see no reason to do that. The fact of the matter is that the appellant has filed an appeal 3 against the conviction and sentence awarded to him which is pending before the Tribunal for disposal. It is also evident that the appellant has undergone a major portion of the sentence if not whole of the sentence awarded to him. In the circumstances, we deem it just and proper to suspend the remainder of the sentence awarded to the appellant pending final disposal of the appeal by the Tribunal. We however request the Tribunal to make an endeavour to expedite the disposal of the appeal. We make it clear that we have not expressed any opinion on the question whether the entire period of sentence awarded to the appellant can be treated as already undergone by him as pointed out before us by Mr. R.Balasubramanian, learned counsel for the respondent. That issue is left open to be examined at the appropriate stage.
This appeal is accordingly allowed and disposed off in the above terms.
No costs.
.......................CJI.
(T.S.THAKUR) .........................J. (UDAY UMESH LALIT) NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 24, 2016.
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ITEM NO.1 COURT NO.1 SECTION II
S U P R E M E C O U R T O F I N D I A
RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS
CRLMP.NO 3364/2016 in Criminal Appeal Diary No(s).6200/2016 MD. AZAM ANSARI Appellant(s) VERSUS UNION OF INDIA AND ORS Respondent(s) (for leave to appeal u/s 31(1) of the armed forces tribunal act, 2007 and office report) Date : 24/02/2016 This application was called on for hearing today. CORAM :
HON'BLE THE CHIEF JUSTICE HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE UDAY UMESH LALIT For Appellant(s) Mr. Pallav Shishodia, Sr. Adv. Mr. Mohd. Mustafa, Adv. Mr. Athar Alam, Adv.
Mr. Haneef Mohd, Adv. Mr. V. Sivasubramanian, Adv.
For Respondent(s) Mr. Maninder Singh, ASG Mr. R. Balasubramanian, Adv. Mr. Nalin Kohli, Adv. Mr. Santosh Kumar, Adv. Mr. Prabhas Bajaj, Adv. Mr. B. V. Balaram Das,Adv.
UPON hearing the counsel the Court made the following O R D E R Leave granted.
The criminal appeal is allowed in terms of the signed order.
(Ashok Raj Singh) (Veena Khera)
Court Master Court Master
(Signed Order is placed in the file)