JAGANNATH SINGH Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By the CourtLearned counsel for the petitioners has argued on the point of sentence only learned counsel submits that an application was filed by the informant, the victim, in this Court on 16.10.2000, as per which, he compounded offence under Section 379 of the Indian Penal Code for which alone all the petitioners were sentenced to undergo simple imprisonment for six months, praying therein to allow compounding of the case as against those two petitioners. Learned counsel has first placed this application. However, from perusal of the case record as well as the judgment of the lower Courts, it will appear that the properties worth more than Rs. 250/- were stolen. Hence, offence will not be compoundable.

(2.) Insofar as petitioner No. 4, Raj Ballabh Singh is concerned, learned counsel submits that besides having gone in custody during pretrial period, after the judgment of the appellate Court he had undergone custody for 17 days. In the meantime, this application was dismissed for non-prosecution after which this petitioner was again arrested on 23.9.1999 and was ultimately released on 29.2.2000, hence, he has remained in custody for a total period of 5 months and 23 days having almost exhausted the period of sentence awarded to him. It is also pointed out that insofar as petitioner No. 3, Bindeshwar Singh, is concerned, he was 45 years of age at the time of judgment, as noted in the judgment of the learned trial Court itself which was delivered on 5.1.1987, hence, now he is 58 years old.

(3.) Learned counsel, in this regard, has also pointed out that this case was instituted in the year 1984 in which ultimately, the appellate Court handed down its judgment on 27.4.1989 and thereafter, this case is pending in this Court. Hence, the case has already consumed as many as 16 years of the proceedings and the petitioners have already faced the case for almost that period for which reason also, they deserve leniency in the matter of sentence.