Supreme Court - Daily Orders
Bejoy Samuel vs The State Of Karnataka on 5 April, 2023
Bench: S. Ravindra Bhat, Dipankar Datta
IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA
CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION
CRIMINAL APPEAL NOS............OF 2023
(@ S.L.P.(Crl.) Nos. 12058-12059 of 2022)
BEJOY SAMUEL .....Appellant(s)
VERSUS
THE STATE OF KARNATAKA .....Respondent(s)
O R D E R
Leave granted.
Concurrently the Courts convicted the appellant for the offences under Sections 302 and 309 of the IPC. The trial Court by its judgment and order dated 27.08.2015 sentenced the appellant to undergo life imprisonment as well as one year’s imprisonment under Section 309. However, the trial Court omitted to clarify under Section 31 of the Code of Criminal Procedure whether the sentences were to run concurrently or consecutively. Section 31(1) requires the Court to issue a clarification on the aspect of sentence wherever an accused is convicted of multiple offences. In the absence of such clarification/direction, the law instructs that the sentences are to run consecutively.
Having considered the submissions of the learned counsel for the parties and also having considered the record Signature Not Verified NEETA SAPRA in this case this Court is of the opinion that the trial Digitally signed by Date: 2023.04.08 13:06:13 IST Reason: Court’s omission to make a specific order on the question of 1 whether the sentences were to run concurrently is not based on any reason. The High Court also omitted to notice this aspect. For the said reasons, the order of sentence imposed on the appellant and concurrently upheld by the High Court, is hereby modified to the extent that they are directed to run concurrently.
The appeals are partly allowed in the above terms. All pending applications are disposed of.
...................J. (S. RAVINDRA BHAT) ....................J. (DIPANKAR DATTA) New Delhi;
April 05, 2023.
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ITEM NO.36 COURT NO.14 SECTION II-C
S U P R E M E C O U R T O F I N D I A
RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS
Petition(s) for Special Leave to Appeal (Crl.) No(s). 12058-
12059/2022
(Arising out of impugned final judgment and order dated 16-08-2018 in CRLA No. 1325/2015 16-08-2018 in CRLA No. 15/2016 passed by the High Court of Karnataka at Bengaluru) BEJOY SAMUEL Petitioner(s) VERSUS THE STATE OF KARNATAKA Respondent(s) (IA No. 173998/2022 - EXEMPTION FROM FILING C/C OF THE IMPUGNED JUDGMENT and IA No. 173999/2022 - EXEMPTION FROM FILING O.T.) Date : 05-04-2023 These matters were called on for hearing today. CORAM :
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE S. RAVINDRA BHAT HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE DIPANKAR DATTA For Petitioner(s) Mr. T. R. B. Sivakumar, AOR Mr. Anil Nishani Adv, Adv.
Mr. Anil V Katarki, Adv.
Ms. Veena Anil Katarki, Adv.
Mr. Trb Sivakumar, Adv.
For Respondent(s) Mr. V. N. Raghupathy, AOR Mr. Manendra Pal Gupta, Adv.
Mr. Varun Varma, Adv.
Mr. Premnath Mishra, Adv.
Mr. Dhanesh Ieshdhan, Adv.
UPON hearing the counsel the Court made the following O R D E R Leave Granted.
Having considered the submissions of the learned counsel for the parties and also having considered the record in this case this Court is of the opinion that the trial Court’s omission to make a specific order on the question of whether the sentences were to run concurrently is not based on 3 any reason. The High Court also omitted to notice this aspect. For the said reasons, the order of sentence imposed on the appellant and concurrently upheld by the High Court, is hereby modified to the extent that they are directed to run concurrently.
The appeals are partly allowed in terms of signed order.
All pending applications are disposed of.
(NEETA SAPRA) (MATHEW ABRAHAM) COURT MASTER (SH) COURT MASTER (NSH)
(Signed order is placed on the file) 4