CHAMPALAL FAGANLAL PARDHI Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) RULE. Rule made returnable forthwith. By consent, the petition is taken up for final disposal.

(2.) The petitioner is convicted for the offence punishable under Sec. 302 of the Indian Penal Code and sentenced to suffer life imprisonment along with fine with default clause vide judgment and order dtd. 17/5/2007. After completion of 14 years of imprisonment, the petitioner's case was referred for remission in terms of Sec. 432 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The Authorities have considered the judgment and order of the Trial Court and held that the petitioner falls in the category no.2(c) of the Government Resolution (GR) dtd. 15/3/2010, which provided 26 years of imprisonment. Category No.2(c) of the said GR is applicable to the cases, where the crime is committed with exceptional violence, and or with brutality or death of victim due to burns. According to the petitioner, the Authorities have wrongly placed him in category No.2(c) instead of category no.2(a), which pertains to of less severity. Category no.2(a) would apply to the cases where the convict has no previous criminal history and committed the murder in an individual capacity in a moment of anger and without premeditation.

(3.) We have gone through the impugned order dtd. 11/11/2020. The adjudicating Authority has considered certain observations of the Convicting Court expressed in the judgment dtd. 17/5/2007 and made categorization as aforesaid mentioned. As a matter of fact, in view of the decision of the Apex Court, the Authority is under obligation to obtain opinion of the Convicting Court on the point of categorization, which admittedly herein not obtained.