Supreme Court - Daily Orders
Karnal Singh &Amp Ors. vs State Of Haryana on 13 April, 2015
Bench: T.S. Thakur, R. Banumathi
ITEM NO.30 COURT NO.2 SECTION IIB
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). 3593/2012
(Arising out of impugned final judgment and order dated 02/01/2012
in CRA No. 458/2000 passed by the High Court of Punjab & Haryana at
Chandigarh)
KARNAL SINGH & ORS. Petitioner(s)
VERSUS
STATE OF HARYANA Respondent(s)
(with appln. (s) for bail and office report)
WITH
SLP(Crl) No. 9113/2013
(With appln.(s) for bail and Office Report)
Date : 13/04/2015 This petition was called on for hearing today.
CORAM :
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE T.S. THAKUR
HON'BLE MRS. JUSTICE R. BANUMATHI
For Petitioner(s) Mr. S.K. Pabbi, Adv.
Ms. Shikha Roy, Adv.
Mr. Surinder Singh, Adv.
Mr. Ajay Kumar Singh, Adv.
For Respondent(s) Mr. Arun Kumar, AAG.
Mr. Rajiv Kumar Singh, Adv.
Mr. Kamal Mohan Gupta, Adv.
UPON hearing the counsel the Court made the following
O R D E R
Leave granted.
Appeals are allowed in terms of the Signed Order, but only to the limited extent that while the conviction of the appellants shall stand affirmed, the sentences awarded to them by the Trial Court as modified by the High Court shall stand reduced to the period already undergone. The appellant-Shish Pal is in custody who shall be set free forthwith unless required in connection with any other case. The remaining appellants are on bail. Their bail bonds shall Signature Not Verified stand discharged.
Digitally signed byRajni Mukhi Date: 2015.04.18 13:23:33 IST Reason:
(Rajni Mukhi) (Shashi Sareen) Sr. P.A. Court Master (Signed Order is placed on the file) IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION CRIMINAL APPEAL NO.656 OF 2015 (Arising out of SLP (Crl.) No.3593 of 2012) Karnail Singh & Ors. .....Appellants Versus State of Haryana .....Respondent WITH CRIMINAL APPEAL NO.657 OF 2015 (Arising out of SLP (Crl.) No.9113 of 2013) Jaipal & Ors. .....Appellants Versus State of Haryana ......Respondent O R D E R Leave granted.
As many as ten persons were tried before the Additional Sessions Judge, Kurukshetra, for offences punishable under Sections 307, 324, 323 and 148 of the IPC. The Trial Court convicted and sentenced all of them to undergo rigorous imprisonment for seven years under Section 307 except accused Ronki who because of his old age was shown leniency and awarded imprisonment for three years. They were further sentenced to undergo imprisonment for one year under Section 324 read with Section 149, one year under Section 148, besides six months under Section 323 read with Section 149 of the IPC.
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The convicts appealed to the High Court who acquitted all of them under Section 307 IPC except appellant-Shish Pal @ Bittoo whose conviction for that offence and sentence of imprisonment for seven years was affirmed. The High Court, at the same time, maintained the conviction of the appellants and the sentence of one year rigorous imprisonment for the offence punishable under Section 324 and six months for offence under Section 323 and one year for offence under Section 148 of the IPC awarded to them. Three other appellants before the High Court were, however, acquitted. The present appeals call in question the said judgment and order of the High Court in which notice was issued by us by our order dated 2nd July, 2012 limited to the quantum of sentence only. We have accordingly heard learned counsel for the parties on that limited question.
The incident appears to have taken place as early as in the year 1993. The genesis of incident lay in a dispute over a certain construction being raised by one of the parties to the dispute near a well situate in village Kalyana. Two communities to which the complainant and the accused respectively belong appear to have clashed over the raising of the construction. Appellant-Shish Pal convicted under Section 307 of the IPC has already undergone around six years of imprisonment out of a total of seven years awarded to him. Learned counsel for the parties submit that out of the
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remaining five appellants Nathu Ram-appellant in SLP (Crl.) No.9113 of 2013 has already passed away during the pendency of the proceedings in the High Court. That leaves us with the remaining four appellants convicted under Sections 324, 323 and 148 of the IPC. These appellants have also undergone more than three months imprisonment pursuant to the impugned judgment and order passed by the High Court. Keeping in view the nature of the incident, the provocation for the same and the fact that the incident is nearly 25 years old, we are inclined to reduce the sentence awarded to the appellants to the period already undergone by each one of them.
We, accordingly, allow these appeals but only to the limited extent that while the conviction of the appellants shall stand affirmed, the sentences awarded to them by the Trial Court as modified by the High Court shall stand reduced to the period already undergone. The appellant-Shish Pal is in custody who shall be set free forthwith unless required in connection with any other case. The remaining appellants are on bail. Their bail bonds shall stand discharged.
...................J. (T.S. THAKUR) ...................J. (R. BANUMATHI) New Delhi April 13, 2015.