The Calcutta High Court Bench comprising Justices Rabindranath Samanta and Soumen Sen in the case of Chand Saudagar @ Chand Swadagar & Anr. v. the State of West Bengal suspended the imprisonment of two accused on finding out that it is of hard possibility that their appeal would be heard in a reasonable time frame.
Background of the case
The accused-appellants filed this application for suspension of sentence. This was the first application for suspension of sentence preferred by the appellants accused in connection with the appeal. The appellants were in custody for over 9 years. Appellant No.1 was 66 years old and appellant No.2 was 70 years old.
The petitioners submitted that in view of the fact that there was no possibility of the appeal being heard within a reasonable time, mercy could be shown to them by suspending the sentence after taking into consideration their conduct during custody.
Order of the Court
The Court took into consideration the submission made by the Petitioners and called for a report from the Superintendent of Berhampore Central Correctional Home regarding their conduct during custody which showed that their conduct was quite satisfactory and nothing adverse was reported against the appellants. The views of the co-inmates also suggested that the petitioners were supportive and no complaint was found from the co-inmates against the life convicts at the Correctional Home
The court said that,
“We find that the applicants have an arguable case towards the success of the appeal, moreover, petitioners are not responsible for the delay in disposal of the appeal. The appellants are in custody for over 10 years. We do not find that the appeal could be disposed of within a measurable time. In the aforesaid conspectus of facts, we feel that the liberty of the petitioners under Article 21 of the Constitution of India needs to be protected and following the decisions of the Hon’ble Supreme Court in Kashmira Singh v. the State of Punjab; (1977) 4 SCC 291; Akhtari Bi (Smt) v. State of Madhya Pradesh: (2001) 4 SCC 355; Surinder Singh v. the State of Punjab: (2005) 7 SCC 387; Sunil Kumar v. Vipin Kumar & Ors.: (2014) 8 SCC 868; Daler Singh v. the State of Punjab; 2017 Cri L J 2337 etc.”
It was considered that the applicants were entitled to be granted suspension of sentence primarily because there was very little possibility of their appeals being heard in the near future and also taking into consideration the nature of the offence and the quality of the prosecution evidence on record which was not considered carefully.
The Court, considering the long incarceration of the petitioners and having regard to the fact that there was no immediate possibility of the appeal being taken up for hearing on merits, allowed the application for suspension of sentence in the result the sentence of imprisonment shall stand suspended. Accordingly, the petitioners were released on bail upon furnishing a bond of Rs.10,000/- each, with two sureties of like amount each, one of whom must be local, to the satisfaction of the learned Chief Judicial Magistrate, Murshidabad at Berhampore.
Accordingly, the petition was disposed of.
Case Details
Title: Chand Saudagar @ Chand Swadagar & Anr. v. The State of West Bengal
Bench: Justices Rabindranath Samanta and Soumen Sen
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