JAGIR SINGH @ JAGIR CHAND Vs. STATE OF HARYANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) CRIMINAL Writ Petition No. 1453 of 1989 has been filed by Jagir Singh detenu in Central Jail, Ambala, for quashing the jail punishment awarded to him by the Superintendent Central Jail, Ambala, on 7th September, 1988, vide order Annexure P-1 on the ground that Assistant Superintendent in Jail, on whose report the enquiry against the detenu proceeded was hostile towards the petitioner; that the Deputy Superintendent who conducted the enquiry against the detenu did so without authority, without observing the statutory procedure prescribed for holding it and adopted a stand contrary to the one reported by Assistant Superintendent and that the punishment awarded to the detenu-petitioner did not have due judicial appraisal in prescribed manner.

(2.) PUNISHING Authority, Superintendent Central Jail, Ambala stated in reply that besides the initial reports made by Sewa Ram, Assistant Superintendent of the Jail against the petitioner, there was an enquiry report submitted by the Deputy Superintendent and the petitioner's own confession in writing serving as basis for the jail punishment awarded to the petitioner. It was also asserted that the judicial appraisal of the punishment awarded to the delinquent had also been obtained from the learned Sessions Judge, Ambala.

(3.) REPORT , Annexure P-1, dated 2nd September, 1988 submitted by Sewa Ram, Assistant Superintendent of the Central Jail, Ambala accuser the petitioner of having received 3-1/2 kgs. of rice from co-prisoner Gurmeet Singh without permission of any official. Enquiry report submitted by the Deputy Superintendent on 5th September, 1988, stated that there was no rice in the stock in the jail store on 2nd September, 1988. It does not, therefore, stand to reason as to how could the petitioner pilfer rice from the jail store; which according to the enquiry report submitted by the Deputy Superintendent Jail did not have any stock of rice at all on 2nd September, 1988. It also does not stand to reason how could the permission from official, allegedly not obtained; if obtained could have brought about the stock of rice in the jail store for being pilfered therefrom by Gurmeet Singh for being passed on to petitioner Jagir Singh. The entire version set up against the petitioner by jail officers obviously appears to be a cock and bull story set up only to punish him. It was only for this reason that the jail officers aforesaid extracted a confession in writing from the accused-petitioner. The confession so obtained is again a useless piece of paper on account of having been made to a person in authority inside the jail.