UTTAM SINGH S/O BUTTA SINGH Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) UTTAM Singh has moved through jail for a direction that the two sentences of transportation for life passed on him for two different offences --one under section 302 and the other under Section 396, Indian Penal Code -- should be ordered to run concurrently.

(2.) UTTAM Singh was convicted and sentenced to transportation for life under section 302 read with Section I49, Indian Penal Code. He was also convicted under Section 307 read with Sections 149 and 148, Indian Penal Code, but no separate sentence was passed on this count. Uttam Singh's appeal against this conviction was dismissed by this Court on the 17th of October, 1955. (Reference may be made to Criminal Appeal No. 392 of 1954 Jaswant Singh v. State ). It may be mentioned that the decision of the learned Sessions Judge in that case was dated the 25th March 1954.

(3.) UTTAM Singh was also tried under Section 396, Indian Penal Code, for having committed dacoity on the night between the 16th and the 17th of June, 1952. He was convicted and sentenced for transportation for life for this offence by the additional Sessions Judge on the 19th of November, 1954. An appeal against his conviction was dismissed by this Court on the 5th of April, 1956. (In this connection reference may be made to Uttam Singh v. State, Criminal Appeal No. 35 of 1955 decided by Falshaw and Kapur JJ.) It is curious that neither at the stage of trial nor at the time of the appeal in the High Court it came to notice that uttam Singh in both the cases before the Sessions Judge and in both the appeals in this Court was the same person. It is not disputed that Uttam Singh is the same person who has been Sentenced to undergo transportation for life on two different dates, namely, the 25th of March, 1954 and the 19th of November, law, for two different offences. At the time when the sentence of transportation for life under section 393, Indian Penal Code, was upheld by this Court the provisions ot Section 397, Criminal Procedure Code, had been amended. Section 397, Criminal procedure Code, as it stood before the amendment is in these terms: