GHULAM MUSTAFA Vs. UT OF J&K

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Instant criminal appeal under Sec. 374 Cr.P.C is directed against judgment of conviction dtd. 30/10/2019 and order of sentence dtd. 30/10/2019 rendered by the Court of learned 2nd Additional Sessions Judge, Jammu in file No. 33/Sessions titled "State v/s Ghulam Mustafa and Anr." where under appellants/convicts have been found guilty of commission of offences u/s 307, 451, 34 RPC and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for (10) years and also fine in the sum of Rs.10,000.00.

(2.) Feeling aggrieved of the impugned judgment of conviction, appellants/convicts have assailed it's correctness, propriety and legality on the grounds, that as a result of miss-appreciation of facts and misapplication of law so far as the finding of the trial court relating to holding appellants guilty of having committing of offences under Ss. 307, 451, 34 RPC and convicting them of the same is bad in the eyes of law, therefore, prayed that the present appeal be allowed the judgment of learned 2nd Additional Sessions Judge, Jammu be set aside.

(3.) Alongwith the appeal, appellants/convicts have filed applications for suspension of conviction and sentence pending the hearing of appeal, with further prayer for ordering them release on bail primarily on the ground that there is no likelihood of the appeal being heard in the near future, and in view of the law laid down by the Supreme Court wherein it has been held that when a convicted person is sentenced to a fixed period of sentence, on filing of appeal, suspension of sentence should be considered liberally unless there are exceptional circumstances; that the bail applications of both the appellants/convicts filed earlier were rejected vide order dtd. 2/7/2020 of this Court and to obviate the apprehension of the appellants of there being no likelihood of hearing of the appeal in near future and this Court directed the matter to be listed for hearing on 18/8/2020, thereafter the matter was listed more than 10 times but the arguments in the appeal could not be considered which further constrained the appellant/convict No.2 to file another application for grant of bail bearing CrlM No. 1612/2020, which was further rejected by this Court vide order dtd. 3/9/2021 on the ground that the appellant No.2 has not even undergone a substantial period of sentence and therefore, it was not a stage for showing indulgence of this Court; that the appellant/convict No.2 is suffering from kidney related ailments and is having only one kidney and the other one stands removed even before the conviction.