PYARI DEVI Vs. STATE OF RAJASTHAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner Smt. Pyari Devi wife of convict Birda Singh, has moved this Court by way of letter petition seeking release of her husband Birda Singh on permanent parole. Birda Singh was convicted vide judgment dated 1/07/1987 by the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Beawar (Ajmer) for offence punishable under Sections 302 and 376, IPC and sentenced as under :

(2.) The learned trial Judge ordered that sentences shall run consecutively which implied that the total period of incarceration of the convict shall be 27 years. The judgment of the learned trial Judge attained finality and Birda Singh has been serving the sentence in Central Jail Ajmer.

(3.) It is contended by Mr. V. R. Bajwa, learned Amicus Curiae that although in accordance with the provisions contained in Section 31 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the Sessions Court can in its discretion make sentences to run consecutively. Yet the High Court, looking to the fact that both the offences committed by the convict on the same facts, can exercise inherent powers and direct that sentence shall run concurrently. Reliance is placed on Zulfiwar Ali v. State of U.P. (1986 All LJ 1177) wherein the Division Bench of the Allahabad High Court in para 26 indicated thus :