Mahesh Puri vs The State Of Madhya Pradesh
2023 Latest Caselaw 22652 MP

Madhya Pradesh High Court

Mahesh Puri vs The State Of Madhya Pradesh on 28 December, 2023

                                                              1
                           IN      THE      HIGH COURT OF MADHYA PRADESH
                                                 AT JABALPUR
                                                       BEFORE
                                            HON'BLE SHRI JUSTICE VIVEK JAIN
                                              ON THE 28 th OF DECEMBER, 2023
                                             CRIMINAL APPEAL No. 1203 of 2012

                          BETWEEN:-
                          MAHESH PURI S/O RAVIRAJ PURI, AGED ABOUT 26
                          YEAR S, BADHORA, THANA CHURHAT, DISTT. SIDHI
                          (MADHYA PRADESH)

                                                                                        .....APPELLANT
                          (NONE)

                          AND
                          THE STATE OF MADHYA PRADESH TH.PS. KOTWALI
                          KOTWALI, DISTT. SHAHDOL (MADHYA PRADESH)

                                                                                      .....RESPONDENT
                          (BY SHRI ANOOP SONKAR -PANEL LAWYER)

                                Th is appeal coming on for hearing       this day, th e court passed the
                          following:
                                                            JUDGMENT

This Criminal Appeal under Section 374(2) of the Code of Criminal

Procedure, 1973 has been preferred by the appellant/accused against the impugned judgment of conviction and order of sentence dated 01.06.2012 passed by First Additional Session Judge-Shahdol in Session Trial No. 180/2010 whereby the learned trial Judge has convicted the appellant for commission of offence under Section 417 of IPC and sentenced him to undergo rigorous imprisonment for six months and further directed to pay fine of Rs. 1000/- with default stipulation.

2. The case of prosecution in brief is that the appellant had appeared in

the examination of welder trade in August 2007 in which he has failed. He had given an application for re-totaling of marks in which he passed in one subject but failed in other subject. Thereafter one envelope was received by the Principal of ITI, Shahdol wherein mark-sheet of appellant was found and prima facie seems to be forged. After 1 and 1/2 months another mark-sheet of the appellant was received. Both the mark-sheets were sent to State Board of Examination, Jabalpur and both the mark-sheets were found to be forged. The appellant was charge-sheeted under Sections 420, 468 and 417 of IPC, however, after trial the court below has convicted the appellant under Section 417 of IPC only.

3. As per the evidence and the material adduced on behalf of the prosecution, the Trial Court found the offence to be proved for offences as mentioned in para-1 above.

4. This Court has gone through the entire evidence adduced on behalf of the prosecution. The prosecution has examined PW/1 Vijay Moh, PW/2 Ragho and PW/3 Gyan Prakash Tiwar and police witnesses.

5. After having perused the evidence adduced by the prosecution, it is found that the findings recorded by the Trial Court upholding the guilt of the accused-appellant are impeccable and the prosecution has succeeded in proving the case against the accused-appellant. There is nothing in cross examination of the witnesses that may demolish the prosecution case. Thus, there is nothing in the said findings of the trial court that can be said to be erroneous or perverse, warranting interference by this Court in Appellate jurisdiction.

6. Thus, the conviction of the appellant as ordered by the trial court is hereby upheld.

7. However, there are certain mitigating circumstances that deserve to be

taken in consideration so far as the sentence part is concerned. The appellant/accused is first offender and the incident took place in the year 2007 and accused/appellant has faced trial and this appeal is pending since 2012, the accused/appellant has been under trial or appearing before the Court as condition to suspension of sentence since long. Nothing has come on record regarding misuse of conditions of bail/suspension of sentence during the long period since the prosecution, trial and appeal are pending. Thus, this Court deems it fit to reduce the sentence of the appellant to the period already undergone by him ( Fifteen days) and to enhance the fine amount from Rs 1000/- to Rs. 3000/-

8. Consequently, this appeal is partly allowed. The impugned conviction is maintained. However, the appellant/accused is sentenced to undergo imprisonment for the period he has already undergone (Fifteen days), subject to depositing the further fine amount of Rs.3,000/- within a period of three months from today.

9. However, it is clarified that if fine amount as quantified by this Court is not deposited within a period of three months from today, then the original sentence would come into operation and appellant shall be taken into custody or he would surrender himself to serve the entire jail sentence of one year as awarded by the learned trial Court with default stipulations.

10. Learned trial Court is directed to ensure the aforesaid compliance.

11. The bail bonds of the appellant/accused, if any, are discharged.

12. Registry is directed to immediately send back the trial Court record alongwith copy of this judgment to the trial Court concerned for information and necessary compliance.

13. With the aforesaid modification, this appeal is partly allowed and disposed of.

(VIVEK JAIN) V. JUDGE MISHRA