STATE OF U P Vs. SHANKAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an application filed on behalf of the State under Section 561-A, Cr.P. Code as well as under Article 134 (1)(c). of the Constitution of India. The prayer made in this application is that either the order passed by me in Criminal Revision No. 179 of 1959 be suitably amended or leave to appeal to the Supreme Court be granted.

(2.) I may now give briefly the facts of the case in which this application is made.

(3.) A first class Magistrate convicted Goberdhan and Shanker opposite parties under Section 326, I.P. Code and sentenced them to 18 months' rigorous imprisonment each. The charge against the two accused was that they caught hold of Shrimati Mithana and while Goberdhan accused was holding her, Shanker accused cut off a part of her nose. The two offenders were tried and convicted as mentioned above, but it is not apparent whether this was a private prosecution or a State prosecution. They went up in appeal and the learned Sessions Judge of Sitapur came to the conclusion that the sentences awarded to the two accused were inadequate as the disfigurement caused to Shrimati Mithana materially affected her looks. Relying upon a decision of the Bombay High Court in Queen Empress V. Abdul Rahiman ILR 16 Bom 580, in which the sentence of two years' rigorous imprisonment awarded by the Magistrate was on a second trial enhanced to eight years' rigorous imprisonment, the Sessions Judge quashed the conviction of the two accused and directed that they should be committed for trial to the Sessions Court.