Read Time: 06 minutes

Synopsis

The Supreme Court has on November 3, 2023 said that there is no hard and fast rule which requires an accused to serve a particular period of sentence before his plea for suspension of sentence can be considered.

A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Pankaj Mithal also expressed their astonishment over the Gujarat High Court accepting a contention by the state government that only the period undergone post conviction can be considered for such a purpose.

The court allowed an appeal filed by Vishnubhai Ganpatbhai Patel and another against the High Court's order of June 20, 2023 and ordered the trial court to release them on bail within a week till the disposal of their appeal.

The appellants were convicted for the offences punishable under Section 304 Part I read with Sections 114, 506(2) and 504 of the IPC. The maximum substantive sentence was rigorous imprisonment for 10 years. The appellants have undergone sentence for approximately four years and more. 

The bench noted that the appeal was of the year 2023 which was unlikely to be heard before the entire period of sentence of the appellants was over.

"In our view, the High Court ought to have favorably considered the prayer for grant of suspension of sentence when there were no antecedents and more than 40 per cent of the sentence has been undergone," the bench said.

"We may note here something about the approach of the High Court while dealing with the application for suspension of sentence. Before the High Court, surprisingly, a submission was made on behalf of the State that sentence undergone only post conviction should be considered and therefore, a submission was made that the appellants had undergone only 05 months and 27 days," the bench added.

The bench said that the high court had accepted the said submission by recording that the appellants had not even completed one year of sentence. 

"Apart from the fact that the said approach is incorrect, we may note here that there is no hard and fast rule which requires an accused to undergo sentence for a particular period before his prayer for suspension of sentence is considered," the bench observed.

The court directed for the appellants to be produced before the trial court within a week.

In its order, the high court had said, "It appears from the record that the applicants have not even completed one year of sentence after the conviction awarded by the trial Court. Therefore, in view of the facts and circumstances, no interference is required to be called for and no lenience is required to be shown in favour of the present applicants. Hence, the application being meritless deserves to be rejected and accordingly, it is rejected. Rule is discharged. However, it is open for the applicants to revive his request of suspension of sentence after reasonable time".

Case Title: Vishnubhai Ganpatbhai Patel Vs State of Gujarat