SWARAN SINGH Vs. STATE OF UTTAR PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Shri Doodh Nath, third respondent in this appeal, was found guilty of murdering one Joginder Singh. He was convicted and sentenced to imprisonment for life along with some other persons who too were involved in the same offence. His appeal to the High Court and Special Leave Petition to this Court did not give any help to extricate himself from the penal clutches of the offence. But within a period of less than two years, he succeeded in escaping from prison as the Governor of Uttar Pradesh granted remission of the remaining long period of his life sentence. That step of the Constitutional functionary was far beyond the tolerance capacity of the bereaved members of the family of deceased Joginder Singh and hence his son (the present appellant) moved the Allahabad High Court challenging the aforesaid action of the Governor. A division bench of the High Court, which heard his writ petition dismissed it on the premise that a decision of the Governor under Article 161 of the Constitution of India is not justiciable. That necessitated the appellant to reach this Court with this appeal by special leave.

(2.) Shri Doodh Nath was an M. L. A. of the U. P. Assembly when he was convicted of the offence of murder. He was unseated as a sequal to the said conviction and his wife succeeded in becoming his successor in the same constituency. Appellant alleged that when Governor passed the order granting remission of sentence Shri Doodh Nath was already accused in five other criminal cases involving serious offences. That and many other relevant materials were not posted before the Governor when he considered the question of granting reprieve to the convict, according to the appellant.

(3.) In fact, the same Governor had, on an earlier occasion (on 7-6-1990) dismissed a petition filed by Shri Doodh Nath for grant of reprieve and remission of the sentence passed on him by the Court in the very same case of murder of Joginder Singh. Undaunted by the rejection of his earlier clemency motion, Shri Doodh Nath ventured to present a second petition for the same purpose within a period of about five months, that too on almost the same grounds which were not found favour with the Governor on the earlier occasion. When he moved for remission on the second occasion, he was out on parole. It is the case of the appellant that Doodh Nath did not even mention in his second petition for pardon that an earlier petition for the same purpose was rejected by the Governor.