GHASEETA RAM Vs. STATE OF HARYANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) GHASEETA Ram, petitioner herein, was sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code, by the learned Sessions Judge, Gurgaon, vide his judgment dated June 10, 1980. He was undergoing sentence in District Jail, Bhiwani. According to the allegations against him, he made a plan in conspiracy with the other prisoners to escape from the Jail on 16th September, 1984 and during the course of the execution of the said common object of their unlawful assembly, a jail warder was injured by him. He was tried and convicted under Section 148, 342/149, 332/149, 224, and 307/149 of the Indian Penal Code alongwith his co-accused by the Additional Sessions Judge,Bhiwani, vide his judgment of conviction on 22nd February, 1986. He alongwith his co accused was sentenced as under vide order of sentence of even date :-

(2.) THE respondents were served. Written statement has been filed. The sum and substance of the reply is that the Superintendent Jail in exercise of the powers under para No. 633A of the Punjab Jail Manual after obtaining the sanction of the Inspector General of Prisons has imposed the said punishment on the prisoner vide his impugned order.

(3.) LEARNED counsel for the petitioner has taken me through the provisions of sections 45, 46 and 52 of the Prisons Act; paras 611 and 627 of the Punjab Jail Manual and Article 20 of the Constitution of India, and has argued that a prisoner could not be punished twice over, once by the Additional Sessions Judge, Bhiwani and for the second time by the Superintendent Jail, Bhiwani for the same offence. She has placed reliance on the following judgments :- (i) Pritish Dev v. The State, AIR 1952 Calcutta 319; and (DB) (ii)State v. Chandra Bali Singh, AIR 1960 Allahabad 124 (DB)