Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 – s.389 – Suspension of sentence pending appeal – Appellant convicted under the various provisions under the IPC, POCSO and SC/ST Atrocities Act and maximum punishment of four years imposed – Appeal against conviction pending before the High Court – Meanwhile, the appellant filed an application u/s.389 seeking suspension of the substantive order of sentence – High Court declined to suspend the substantive order of sentence – Correctness: Held: Instant case is one of a fixed term of sentence – High Court while passing the impugned order failed to take into consideration the well-settled principles of law governing the plea of suspension of sentence on fixed term – High Court should have been mindful of the fact that the appeal is of the year 2024 – Appeal of 2024 is not likely to be taken up in near future – Ultimately, if four years are to elapse in jail the same would render the appeal infructuous and that would be travesty of justice – Impugned order set-aside – Matter remanded to the High Court for fresh consideration of the plea of the appellant for suspension of the substantive order of sentence keeping in mind the principles of law – Penal Code, 1860 – ss.354, 354B, 323, 504 – Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 – ss.7, 8 – Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 – s.3(1)(10). [Paras 11, 19-22]
Judicial deprecation – Incorrect approach by High Court – Matter pertaining to suspension of sentence – High Court unfortunately while passing the impugned order failed to take into consideration the well-settled principles of law governing the plea of suspension of sentence on fixed term – High Court reiterated the entire case of the prosecution and the oral evidence, which is not the correct approach – This Court constrained to observe that such errors creep in at the level of High Court only because the well settled principles of law on the subject not applied correctly – Very important to first look into the subject-matter and thereafter the court should look into the issue involved and in the last the court should look into the plea of the litigant and then proceed to apply the correct principles of law. [Paras 19, 20, 23]
As published in the Supreme Court Reports, Supreme Court of India. Headnotes prepared by: Nidhi Jain. Text from the Indian Supreme Court Judgments open data set (Dattam Labs), CC BY 4.0.
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