Allahabad High Court
Lal Bahadur Singh And Ors. vs State Of U.P. on 31 October, 2022
Bench: Mohd. Faiz Khan
HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT ALLAHABAD, LUCKNOW BENCH
?Court No. - 12
Case :- CRIMINAL APPEAL DEFECTIVE No. - 2771 of 2010
Appellant :- Lal Bahadur Singh And Ors.
Respondent :- State of U.P.
Counsel for Appellant :- Arshad Ahsan Siddiqui,Shishir Pradhan
Counsel for Respondent :- Govt. Advocate
Hon'ble Mohd. Faiz Alam Khan,J.
In pursuance of the order of this Court, a report has now been submitted by the Incharge, Chief Judicial Magistrate Raebareli of date 26.08.2022 stating therein that appellant no.2 Ram Singh had died about 4 years ago. The report is supported with a report of Police Station Maharajganj, Raebareli, a copy of death certificate of the appellant no.2 Ram Singh as well as statement of Sub Inspector Santosh Kumar of Police Station Maharajganj and witnesses Ranjeet Singh as well as Ramdev Yadav.
Thus, having regard to the report submitted by the Incharge, Chief Judicial Magistrate, Raebareli of dated 26.08.2022 and 13.06.2022, the appellant no.2 Ram Singh appears to have died. Accordingly, the instant appeal is abated so far as it relates to the appellant no.2 Ram Singh is concerned.
Heard Shri Shishir Pradhan, learned counsel for the appellant nos.1, 3 and 4 as well as learned Additional Government Advocate for the State and perused the record.
The instant appeal has been filed by the appellant nos.1, 3 and 4, Lal Bahadur Singh, Pratap Singh and Brijesh Singh, respectively against the judgment and order dated 22.06.2010 passed by the Additional District and Sessions Judge/F.T.C.-III, Raebareli in Sessions Trial No.593 of 1998 (State vs. Lal Bahadur Singh and others) arising out of Case Crime No.22 of 1995, under Sections 323, 504, 506 I.P.C. and Section 3(1)(x) of the S.C./S.T. Act, Police Station Maharajganj, District Raebareli, whereby the appellants were convicted for the offence under Sections 323, 504, 506 I.P.C. and were acquitted for the offence under Section 3(1)(x) of the S.C./S.T. Act and were sentenced with fine of Rs.500/- each with regard to offence under Sections 323, 504, 506 I.P.C. each with default clause.
Learned counsel for the appellants submits that so far as the merits of the judgment with regard to the conviction of the appellants in the relevant penal sections is concerned, he is not having any grievance pertaining to the same. However, he is aggrieved by the fact that while sentencing the appellants for committing the offences under Sections 323, 504, 506 I.P.C., the trial court has not considered the mandatory provisions of Sections 360 and 361 of the Cr.P.C. as well as Sectiond 3, 4 and 5 of the Probation of First Offenders Act, 1958 and, therefore, a serious illegality has been committed by the trial court and, thus, it was the duty of the trial court to have considered the case of the appellants for extending the benefit of Probation of First Offenders Act and, therefore, as the appellants are not previous convict, benefit of Probation of First Offenders Act may be extended to the instant appellants.
Learned A.G.A. would have no objection to the request made by learned counsel for the appellants as the appellants have been convicted and sentenced with fine of Rs.500/- pertaining to the offences under Sections 323, 504, 506 I.P.C. respectively.
Having heard learned counsel for the parties and having perused the record, though, learned counsel for the appellants has not challenged the judgment and order of the trial court, so far as the conviction part of the same is concerned, but in order to satisfy the judicial conscience of this Court, this Court has entered into the merits of the judgment of the trial court, with regard to the conviction also and having gone through the same, is of the considered view that the prosecution in all probability was able to prove its case before the trial court beyond any reasonable doubt and, therefore, no illegality appears to have been committed by the trial court in convicting the appellants for the offences under Sections 323, 504, 506 I.P.C. Thus, the judgment of the trial court, so far as the conviction of the appellants with regard to Sections 323, 504, 506 I.P.C. is concerned, is affirmed.
Coming to the submissions made by learned counsel for the appellants that the trial court have committed manifest illegality in not extending the benefit of the Probation of First Offenders Act, 1958 to appellants, moreso when it was evident on the record that the instant appellants are not previous convict, is concerned, perusal of the record would reveal that there is nothing in the judgment of the trial court which may reflect that the appellants are previous convict and the release of appellants on probation was not considered by trial court while sentencing the appellants. In the incident in question, one person is stated to have sustained injuries. It is also evident that the incident in question is of 01.03.1995 and about 27 years have elapsed since then and there is no any other incident happened between the parties thereafter and in all probability the parties are living in peace.
Thus, keeping in view all the facts and circumstances of the case, I am of the considered opinion that the benefit of Probation of First Offenders Act, 1958 could be extended to the instant appellants- Lal Bahadur Singh, Pratap Singh and Brijesh Singh.
Resultantly, the appeal is partly allowed and while conviction of the appellants for committing the offences under Sections 323, 504, 506 I.P.C. is maintained and Judgment of the trial court in this regard is affirmed, the appellants are granted the benefit of Section 4 of the 'Act' and appellants- Lal Bahadur Singh, Pratap Singh and Brijesh Singh are released on probation for 01 year. Appellants shall file personal bond of Rs. 50,000/- and two sureties of the like nature of the satisfaction of the trial court and also an undertaking that they shall keep peace in the society and shall not commit any such offence in future.
Let the copy of this order as well as the lower court record, if received, be transmitted to the concerned Trial Court, forthwith for necessary compliance.
Order Date :- 31.10.2022
Anupam S/-
