Supreme Court surprised over Punjab and Haryana HC verdict awarding different jail terms to persons convicted of same offence

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 4

The Supreme Court on Monday expressed surprise over the Punjab and Haryana High Court’s decision to award different jail terms to various persons convicted of the same offence and having indistinguishable roles in the crime.

Deciding an appeal arising out of the high court’s decision sentencing eight persons of an unlawful assembly that attacked a person with deadly weapons and killed him, a Bench of Justice S Ravindra Bhat and Justice Dipankar Dutta said, “The sentencing in this case, to put it mildly, is inexplicable (if not downright bizarre).”

The top court noted that: “On the one hand, Krishan underwent sentence for 9 years 4 months- at the other end of the spectrum, Sunder s/o Rajpal underwent only 11 months. No rationale appears from the reasoning of the High Court for this wide disparity. It is not as though the court took note of the role ascribed to the accused (such a course was not possible, given the nature of the evidence).

“If it were assumed that the age of the accused played a role, then Krishan, at 61 years – who served 9 years and Brahmajit, who had served in the army, and was detained for over 8 years got the stiffest sentence. On the other end of the scale, younger persons were left relatively unscathed, having served between 3 years and 11 months,” the Bench said.

“The impugned judgment, in this court’s opinion, fell into error in not considering the gravity of the offence,” it said.

“Having held all the accused criminally liable, under Section 304 Part II read with Section 149 IPC and also not having found any distinguishing feature in the form of separate roles played by each of them, the imposition of the “sentence undergone” criteria, amounted to an aberration, and the sentencing is for that reason, flawed. This court is, therefore, of the view that given the totality of circumstances (which includes the fact that the accused have been at large for the past four years), the appropriate sentence would be five years rigorous imprisonment,” it said.

“However, at the same time, the court is cognizant of the fact that Krishan and Bramhajit served more than that period. Therefore, the impugned judgment, as far as they are concerned, is left undisturbed. Consequently, the sentence of Raju, Parveen, Sunder s/o Amit Lal, Sandeep, Nar Singh, and Sunder s/o Rajpal is hereby modified; they are hereby sentenced to undergo Rigorous Imprisonment for five years,” it said, ordering them to surrender within six weeks from today and serve the rest of their sentences.

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