Mohinder Singh vs State of Punjab

J.B. Garg J.

Mohinder Singh son of Hazara Singh has been sentenced to imprisonment for life for an offence under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code by Sessions Judge, Bhatinda on 8111979. According to the schedule worked out in para No. 1 of the petition, this convict has undergone a substantive sentence of 11 years 6 months and 19 days. Beside this, he has also earned remissions for a period of 7 years, 8 months and 21 days. He applied for premature release but that State Government has declined this proposal on 2041991 mainly on the plea that there was apprehension of breach of peace. The petitioner claimed that his age at the time of commission of the offence was 16 years whereas the Sessions Judge observed it to be 19/20 years.

On behalf of the petitioner it has been stressed that according to the instructions (Annexure P3) his case for premature required consideration after he had undergone 81/2 years of sentence whereas by now, he has undergone a much longer sentence as detailed above. There is no important reason in Annexure P4 whereby the petition for premature release was rejected by State Government on 2041991 and his alleged tendency towards any probable immoral act cannot be taken into consideration for rejecting the plea of the petitioner.

The learned counsel for the petitioner has referred to Darshan Singh v. State of Punjab and anr., 1988(1) Recent C.R. 472 , where an convict was released who had undergone sentence for a period of 15 years including the remissions earned by him. Any authority to the contrary has not been referred to here. In view of the reasons mentioned above and the period actually undergone and also the remissions earned by this convict, the present petition is accepted and it is ordered that he be released on his furnishing surety to the satisfaction of District Magistrate, Bhatinda that the petitioner shall maintain peace.

JUDGMENT accordingly.