No leniency for criminals due to time lag: SC

The Supreme Court has held that in criminal cases punishment cannot be reduced merely because several years had lapsed due to long pendency of trial.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has held that in
criminal cases punishment cannot be reduced merely because
several years had lapsed due to long pendency of trial.

"After all, one young life was lost at the young age
of 22 years. While considering the sentence, merely because
the appeal pended and merely because the incident had taken
place long back would not by itself justify any interference
with the punishment, particularly when the punishment itself
is lenient," a bench of Justices V S Sirpurkar and Mukundakam
Sharma said.

The bench made the remarks while dismissing the appeal of
three persons convicted in a murder case nearly 27 years ago.

The trio Sunil Kumar, Tilak Singh and Ram Singh, along
with Jageshwar and Munna, killed a youth Salim in Uttar
Pradesh`s Jalaun district due to previous enmity.

The police, instead of charging the accused under
Section 302 IPC(murder), slapped cases under Section 304
(culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and other minor
lesser offences.

A sessions court had convicted and sentenced the five
to four years rigorous imprisonment and the Allahabad High
Court confirmed the sentence in 2003, following which they
appealed in the apex court. However, during the pendency of
the appeal, Jageshwar and Munna died.

-PTI

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