Sajjan Lal vs State of U.P.

Virendra Saran, J.—Sajjan Lal has preferred this revision against the judgment and order dated 23.8.1984 of the VII Ith Additional District and Sessions Judge, Kanpur, dismissing the Criminal Appeal No. 34 of 1984 against the judgment and order dated 5.3.1984 of the Judicial Magistrate, Bilhaur, convicting the applicant u/s 411, I.P.C. Learned Magistrate has sentenced the applicant to undergo one year''s R.I. However, the Lower Appellate Court reduced the sentence to six months'' R.I.

I have heard the learned Counsel for the applicant and the learned Counsel for the State.

The prosecution case which has been believed by the two courts below is that bicycle of complainant, Tulsi Ram was stolen from his quarter in village Bahrajpur. He reported the matter to the police. Eventually, this bicycle was recovered from the possession of the applicant on 6.3.1982 at about 10.25 a.m. In exercise of discretionary revisional jurisdiction, I am not inclined to enter into the reappraisal of the evidence and hence, the revision fails, so far as the conviction of the applicant is concerned.

Learned Counsel for the applicant has also argued on the point of the sentence and I have given my serious consideration to the question of the sentence. The incident took place about 18 years ago and to be more precise on 5.3.1982. The applicant has already remained in jail for quite sometime. From the judgment of the learned Sessions Judge, it appears that the appeal of the applicant was dismissed on 23.8.1984 and the applicant was taken into custody. The applicant was again granted bail on 24.9.1984. Thus, he has remained in jail for nearly one month. In my opinion, it will not serve any useful purpose to send the applicant to the jail again after long lapse of about 18 years and in view of this his sentence may be reduced to the period already undergone by him. Accordingly the conviction of the applicant for the offence u/s 411, I.P.C. is affirmed. But the sentence of six month''s R.I. is reduced to the period of imprisonment already undergone by him. While affirming the conviction of the applicant for the offence u/s 411, I.P.C. his sentence is reduced to the period already undergone by him. The bail bonds of the applicant are discharged.

With the above modification of sentence the revision is dismissed.

The revisionist is on bail. He need not surrender. His bail bonds are discharged.