Criminal Appeal No 195 of 1977
Appeal by Special Leave from the Judgment and Order dated the 25 10 1976 of the Andhra Pradesh High Court in Crl
R Case No 660 of 1970 and Crl
RP No 646 of 1976
155 G Yenkatrama Sastry and G Narasinhulu for the Appellant
P Parwneswara Rao and G Narayana Rao for Respondent
The Judgment of the Court was delivered by KRISHNA IYER J
Some basic issues bearing on prescription of punishments arise for judicial investigation in this criminal appeal where leave has been limited to tailoring the sentence by appellate review to fit the gravity of the delinquency and the redemption of the deviant
The facts leading up to the conviction may need brief narration
The appellant along with another accused deceived several desperate unemployed young men received various sums of Rs 1200 by false pretences that they would secure jobs for them through politically influential friends and other make believe representations
The offence of cheating under section 420 IPC was made out and convic tion of both the accused followed
The 1st accused appellant before us is a young man around 28 years old and works as a Junior Assistant in the Planning and Financial Department of the Andhra Pradesh Secretariat and the other accused is his friend who personated as a State Port Officer
Before the trial court there was a formal almost pharisaic fulfilment of the pre sentencing provision in section The opportunity contemplated in the sub section has a penological significance of far reaching import which has been lost on the trial Magistrate
For he disposed of this benignant obligation by a brief ritual  I made of the accused that they were found guilty under section 420 IPC and the punishment contemplated thereof
 Reform of the black letter law is a time lagging process
But judicial metabolism is sometimes slower to assimilate the spiritual substance of creative ideas finding their way into the statute book
This may explain why the appellate courts fell in line with the Magistrate s mechanical approach and confirmed the condign punishment of 3 years  rigorous imprisonment
At all the three tiers the focus was on the serious nature of the crime cheating of young men by a government servant and his blackguardly companion and no ray of light on the criminal  or on the pertinent variety of social facts surrounding him penetrated the forensic mentation
The humane art of sentencing remains a retarded child of the Indian criminal system
Now we enter the area of punitive treatment of criminals assuming that the guilt has been brought home
Certain elemental factors are significant strands of criminological thought
Since the whole territory of punishment in its modem setting is virtually Virgin so far as our country is concerned we may as well go into the subject in some incisive depth for the guidance of the subordinate judi ciary
The subject of study takes us to our cultural heritage that there is divinity in every man which has been translated into the 11 722SCI77 156 constitutional essence of the dignity and worth of the human person
We take the liberty of making an Indian approach and then strike a cosmic note
Progressive criminologists across the world will agree that the Gandhian diagnosis of offenders at patients and his conception of prisons as hospitals mental and moral is the key to the pathology of delinquency and the therapeutic role of punishment  The whole man is a healthy man and every man is born good
Criminality is a curable deviance
The morality of the law may vary but is real
The basic goodness of all human beings is a spiritual axiom a fall out of the advaita of cosmic creation and the spring of correctional thought in criminology
If every saint has a past every sinner has a future and it is the role of law to remind both of this
The Indian legal genius of old has made a healthy contribution to the world treasury of criminology
The drawback of our criminal process is that often they are built on the bricks of impressionist opinions and dated values ignoring empirical studies and deeper researches
India like every other country has its own crime complex and dilemma of punishment
Solutions to tangled social issues do not come like the crack of down but are the product of research and study oriented on the founding faiths of society and driving towards that transformation which is the goal of free India
Man is subject to more stresses and strains in this age than ever before and a new class of crimes arising from restlessness of the spirit and frustration of ambitions has erupted
White collar crime with which we are concerned here belongs to this disease of man s inside
If the psychic perspective and the spiritual insight we have tried to project is valid the police billy and the prison drill cannot minister to a mind diseased nor tone down the tension release the repression unbend the perversion each of which shows up as debased deviance violent vice and behavioral turpitude
It is a truism often forgotten in the hidden vendetta in human bosoms that barbarity breeds barbarity and injury recoils as injury so that if hearing the mentally or morally maimed or malformed man found guilty is the goal awakening the inner being more than torturing through exterior compulsions holds out better curative hopes
An aside
A holistic view of sentencing and a finer perception of the effect of imprisonment give short shrift to draconian severity as self defeating and fillips meditational relaxation psychic medication and like exercises as apt to be more rewarding
Therefore the emphasis has to be as much on man as on the system on the inner imbalance as on the outer tensions
Perhaps the time has come for Indian criminologists to rely more on Patanjali sutra as a scientific curative for crimogenic factors than on the blind jail term set out in the Penal Code and that may be why western researchers are now seeking Indian yogic ways of normalising the individual and the group
157 Western jurisdiction and sociologists from their own angle have struck a like note
Sir Samual Romilly critical of the brutal penalties in the then Britain said in 1817  The laws of England are written in blood
Alfieri has suggested  society prepares the crime the criminal commits it
George Micodotis Director of Criminological Research Centre Athens Greece maintains that Crime is the result of the lack of the right kind of education  It is thus plain that crime is a pathological aberration that the criminal can ordinarily be redeemed that the State has to rehabilitate rather than avenge
The sub culture that leads to anti social behaviour has to be countered not by undue cruelty but by re culturisation
Therefore the focus of interest in penology is the individual and goal is salvaging him for society
The infliction of harsh and savage punishment is thus a relic of past and regressive times
The human today views sentencing as a process of reshaping a person who has deteriorated into criminality and the modern community has a primary stake in the rehabilitation of the offender as a means of social defense
We therefore consider a therapeutic rather than an in terrorem  outlook should prevail in our criminal courts since brutal incarceration of the person merely produces laceration of his mind
In the words of George Bernard Shaw  If you are to punish a man retributively you must injure him
If you are to reform him you must improve him and men are not improved by injuries 
We may permit ourselves the liberty to quote from Judge Sir Jeoffrey Streatfield  If you are going to have anything to do with the criminal courts you should see for yourself the conditions under which prisoners serve their sentences  In the same strain a British Buddhist Christian Judge speaking to a BBC reporter underscored the role of compassion  Circuit Judge Christmas Humphreys told the BBC reporter recently that a judge looks at the man in the dock in a different way  not just a criminal to be punished but a fellow human being another form of life who is also a form of the same one life as oneself  In the context of karuna and punishment for karma the same Judge said  The two things are not incompatible
You do punish him for what he did but you bring in a quality of what is sometimes called mercy rather than an emotional hate against the man for doing something harmful
You feel with him that is what compassion means
 The Listener November 25 1976 p 692 Incidentally we may glance at the prison system which leaves much to be desired in the sense of humanizing and reforming the man we call criminal
Jimmy Carter currently President of the United States and not a law man made certain observations in his Law Day Speech to the University of Georgia while he was Governor of that State which bear quotation  In our prisons which in the past have been a disgrace to Georgia we ve tried to make substantive changes in the 158 quality of those who administer them and to put a new realm of understanding and hope and compassion into the administration of that portion of the system of justice
Ninety five percent of those who are presently incarcerated in prisons will be returned to be our neighbors
And now the thrust of the entire program as initiated under Ellis Mac Dougall and now continued under Dr Ault is to try to discern in the soul of each convicted and sentenced person redeeming features that can be enhanced
We plan a career for that person to be pursued while he is in prison
I believe that the early data that we have on recidivism rates indicates the efficacy of what we ve done In the light of what we propose to do in disposing of this appeal another observation of Jimmy Carter in the course of the same speech is relevant Well I don t know the theory of law but there is one other point I want to make just for your own consideration
I think we ve made great progress in the Pardons and Paroles Board since I ve been in Office and since we ve reorganized the Government
We have five very enlightened people there now
And on occasion they go out to the prison system to interview the inmates to decide whether or not they are worthy to be released after they serve one third of their sentence
I think most jurors and most judges feel that when they give the sentence they know that after a third of the sentence has gone by they will be eligible for careful consideration
Just think for a moment about your own son or your own father or your own daughter being in prison having served seven years of a lifetime term and being considered for a release
Don t you think that they ought to be examined and that the pardons and Paroles Board ought to look them in the eye an d ask them a question and if they are turned down ought to give them some substantive reason why they are not released and what they can do to correct their defects We have dealt with the subject sufficienty to set the humanitarian tone that must inform the sentencing judge the Karuna that must line his verdict
The same compassionate outlook is reflected in some of the decision of this Court and of the High Courts indicating the distance between current penal strategy and Hammurabi s Code which in about 1975 BC insited on an eye for an eye a tooth for a tooth 
Referring to the earlier Criminal Procedure Code and its deficiency in regard to sentencing this Court observed in Telani AIR 1974 SC 228 236 Finally comes the post conviction stage where the current criminal system is weakest
The Court s approach has at once to be socially informed and personalised
Unfortunately the meaningful collection and presentation of 159 the penological facts bearing on the background of the individual the dimension of damage the social milieu and what not these are not provided in the Code and we have to make intelligent hunches on the basis of materials adduced to prove guilt
In this unsatisfactory situation which needs legislative remedying we go by certain broad features Similarly in Jagmohan Singh  1973 SCR 541560 this Court observed  The sentence follows the conviction and it is true that no formal procedure for producing evidence with reference to the sentence is specifically provided
The reason is that relevant facts and circumstances impinging on the nature and circumstances of the crime are already before the Court Where counsel addresses the court with regard to the charac ter and standing of the accused they are duly considered by the Court unless there is something in the evidence itself which belies him or the Public Prosecutor for the State challenges the facts
If the matter is relevant and is essential to be considered there is nothing in the Or
P C which prevents additional evidence being taken
It must however be stated that it is not the experience of criminal courts in India that the accused with a view to obtaining a reduced sentence ever offers to call additional evidence
However it is necessary to emphasize that the Court is broadly concerned with the facts and circumstances whether aggravating or mitigating which are connected with the particular crime under enquiry
All such facts and circumstances are capable of being proved in accordance with the provisions of the Indian Evidence Act in a trial regulated by the Cr
PC The trial thus does not come to an end until all the relevant facts are proved and the counsel on both sides have an opportunity to address the court 
The Kerala High Court in Shiva Prasad had also something useful to say in this regard  Criminal trial in our country is largely devoted only to finding out whether the man in the dock is guilty
It is a major deficiency in the Indian system of criminal trials that the complex but important sentencing factors are not given sufficient emphasis and materials are not presented before the court to help it for a correct judgment in the proper personalised punitive treatment suited to the offender and the crime 
Likewise Shri Justice Dua as lie then was of the Punjab High Court had indicated the guidelines on the application of the rehabilitative theory in Lekharaj  Ors vs State AIR 1960 Punjab 482 where the learned Judge had pointed out the relevance of the offender s circumstances and social milieu apart 160 from the daring and reprehensible nature of the offence
The Law Commission of India in 47th Report has summed up the components of a proper sentence  A proper sentence is a composite of many factors including the nature of the offence the circumstances extenuating or aggravating of the offence the prior criminal record if any of the offender the age of the offender the professional and social record of the offender the background of the offender with reference to education
home life sobriety and social adjustment the emotional and mental condition of the offender the prospect for the rehabilitation of the offender the possibility of a return of the offender to normal life in the community the possibility of treatment or of training of the offender tie possibility that the sentence may serve as a deterrent to crime by this offender or by others and the present community need if any for such a deterrent in respect to the particular type of offence involved para 744 All that we have said upto now emphasizes the need on the part of the judges to see that sentencing ceases to be downgraded to Cinderella status
The new Criminal Procedure Code 1973 incorporates some of these ideas and gives an opportunity in section 2482 to both parties to bring to the notice of the court facts and circumstances which win help personalize the sentence from a reformative angle
This Court in Santa Singh  has emphasized how fundamental it is to put such provision to dynamic judicial use while dealing with the analogous provisions in section 2352 This new provision in section 2352 is in consonance with the modern trends in penology and sentencing procedures
There was no such provision in the old Code
It was realised that sentencing is an important stage in the process of administration of criminal justice as important as the adjudication of guilt and it should not be con signed to a Subsidiary position as if it were a matter of not much consequence
It should be a matter of some anxiety to the court to impose an appropriate punishment on the criminal and sentencing should therefore receive serious attention of the Court
p 194
Modern penology regards crime and criminal as equally material when the right sentence has to be picked out
It turns the focus not only on the crime but also on the criminal and seeks to personalise the punishment so that the reformist component is as much operative as the deterrent element
It is necessary for this purpose that facts of a social and personal nature sometimes altogether irrelevant if not injurious at the stage of fixing the guilt may have to be brought to the notice of the court when the actual sen tence is determined
p 195
161 A proper sentence is the amalgam of many factors such as the nature of the offence the circumstances extenuating or aggravating of the offence the prior criminal record if any of the offender the age of the offender the record of the offender as to employment the background of the offender with reference to education home life sobriety and social adjustment the emotional and mental condition of the offender the prospects for the rehabilitation of the offender the possibility of return of the offender to normal life in the community the possibility of treatment or training of the offender the possibility that the sentence may serve as a deterrent to crime by the offender or by others and the current community need if any for such a deterrent in respect to the particular type of offence
These factors have to be taken into account by the Court in deciding upon the appropriate sentence
p 195
The hearing contemplated by section 2352 is not confined merely to hearing oral submissions but it is also intended to give an opportunity to the prosecution and the ac cused to place before the court facts and material relating to various factors  bearing on the question of sentence and if they are contested by other side then to produce evidence for the purpose of establishing the same
Of course care would have to be taken by the court to see that this hearing on the question of sentence is not abused and turned into an instrument for unduly protracting the proceedings
The claim of due and proper hearing would have to be harmonised with the requirement of expeditious disposal of proceedings p 196
It will thus be seen that there is a great discretion vested in the Judge especially when pluralistic factors  enter his calculations Even so the judge must exercise this discretionary power drawing his inspiration from the humanitarian spirit of the law and living down the traditional precedents which have winked at the personality of the crime doer and been swept away by the features of the crime
What is dated has to be discarded
What is current has to be incorporated
Therefore innovation in all conscience is in the field of judicial discretion
Unfortunately the Indian Penal Code still lingers in the somewhat compartmentalised system of punishment viz imprisonment simple or rigorous fine and of course capital sentence
There is a wide range of choice and flexible treatment which must be available with the judge if he is to fulfil his tryst with cruing the criminal in a hospital setting
Maybe in an appropriate case actual hospital treatment may have to be prescribed as part of the sentence
In another case liberal parole may have to be suggested and yet in a third category engaging in certain types of occupation or even going through meditational drills or other courses may be part of the sentencing prescription
The perspective having changed the legal strategies and judicial resources in their variety also have to change
Rule 162 of thumb sentences of rigorous imprisonment or other are too insensitive to the highly delicate and subtle operation expected of a sentencing judge
Release on probation conditional sentences visits to healing centres are all on the cards
We do not wish to be exhaustive
Indeed we cannot be
Sentencing justice is a facet of social justice even as redemption of a crime doer is an aspect of restoration of a whole personality
Till the new Code recognised statutorily that punishment required considerations beyond the nature of the crime and circumstances surrounding the crime and provided a second stage for bringing in such additional materials the Indian courts had by and large assigned an obsolescent backseat to the sophisticated judgment on sentencing
Now this judicial skill has to come of age
The sentencing stance of the court has been outlined by us and the next question is what hospitalization  techniques will best serve and sentencee having due regard to his just deserts blending a feeling for a man behind the crime defence of society by a deterrent component and a scientific therapeutic attitude at once correctional and realistic
The available resources for achieving these ends within the prison campus also has to be considered in this context
Noticing the scant regard paid by the courts below to the soul of section 248 2 of the Code and compelled to gather information having sentencing relevancy we permitted counsel on both sides in the present appeal to file affidavits and other materials to help the Court make a judicious choice of the appropriate penal  treatment
Both sides have filed affidavits which disclose some facts pertinent to the project
We have earlier mentioned that the social abhorrence of the crime is an input since the emphatic denunciation of a crime by the community must be reflected in the punishment
From this angle we agree with the trial court that unconscionable exploitation of unfortunately unemployed young men by heartless deception compounded by pretension to political influence calls for punitive severity to serve as deterrent
The crime here is doubly bad and throws light on how gullible young men part with hard money in the hope that political influence indirectly purchased through money can secure jobs obliquely
But then the victims of the crime must be commiserated with and in such white collar offences it is proper to insist upon reparation of the victims apart from any other sentence
In the present case four young men have been wheedled out of their little for tunes by two convicts and so to drive home a sense of moral responsibility to repair the injury inflicted we think it right to direct the appellant to pay a fine of Rs 1200 which will be made over by the trial court to PW 1 whose case alone is the subject of the prosecution under section 357 of the Code
That is to say a fine of Rs 1200is imposed will be paid over to the aforesaid PW1
What are the other circumstances which we may look into  The appellant is a young man of 28 years
He has a degree in Bachelor of Oriental Languages and another in Commerce which suggests that he may respond to new cultural impact
He was working as a Junior 163 Assistant in the Government Secretariat and has now lost the post consequent on the conviction
This is a hard lesson in life
The socioeconomic circumstances of the man deserve to be noticed
His parents are old and financially weak since they and the appellant  sisters and younger brother are his dependents
The younger brother also is unemployed
These factors suggest that the economic blow if the appellant is imprisoned for long will be upon his brothe r at College and the other members of his family
Extenuation is implicit in this fact
He prays for release on probation or under section 360 of the Code because he has no blemish by way of previous crime or bad official record
Having regard to his age not immature and the deliberate plan behind the crime operated in partnership upon four perhaps more persons we reject his request as over ambitious
At the same time a contrite convict yet in his twenties may deserve clement treatment
A just reduction of the sentence is justified and we think that incarceration for 18 months may be adequate
But this long period has to be converted into a spell of healing spent in an intensive care ward of the penitentiary if we may say so figuratively
How can this be achieved  First by congenial work which gives job satisfaction not jail frustration nor further criminalisation
We therefore direct the State Government to see that within the framework of the Jail Rules the appellant is assigned work not of a monotonous mechanical degrading type but of a mental intellectual or like type mixed with a little manual labour1
This will ensure that the prisoner does work more or less of the kind he is used to
The jail certainly must be able to find this kind of work for him even on its own administrative side under proper safeguards though
Shri PP Rao appearing for the State assures us that in keeping with this constructive suggestion of the Court the jail authorities will assign to the appellant congenial work of a mental cum manual type and promote him to an officer warder s position if his conduct is good
We have also made the suggestion that the appellant must be paid a reasonable faction of remuneration by way of wages for the work done since unpaid work is bonded labour and humiliating
This amount may be remitted to his father once in three months Shri Rao on behalf of the State Government has assured the Court that immediate consideration will be given to this idea by the State Government and the jail authorities
We also think that the appellant has slipped into crime for want of moral fibre
If competent Jail Visitors could organise for him processes whichwill instill into him a sense of ethics it may help him become a better man
Self expression and self realisation have a curative effect
Therefore any sports and games artistic activity 1 Says Gandhiji in Harijan  Feb 6 1947 Intellectual work is important and has an undoubted place in the scheme of life
But what I insist on is the necessity of physical labour
No man I claim ought to be free from that obligation it will serve to improve even the quality of his intellectual output
164 andor meditational course may also reform
We strongly recommend that the appellant be given such opportunities by the jail authorities as will stimulate his creativity and sensitivity
In this connection we may even refer to proven advantages of kindling creative intelligence and normalising inner imbalance reportedly accomplished by Transcendental Meditation TM propagated by Maharshi Mahesh Yogi in many countries in the west
Research projects conducted in various countries bring out that people practising such or like courses change their social behaviour and reduce their crime proneness
We do not prescribe anything definite but indicate what the prison doctors may hopefully consider
While it is beyond us to say whether the present facilities inside the Central Prison Hyderabad make it feasible for the appellant to enjoy these benefits and thereby improve his inner being we strongly feel that the humanitarian winds must blow into the prison barricades
More than this is expected in this decade when jail reforms from abolition of convict s costume and conscript labour to restoration of basic companionship and atmosphere of self respect and fraternal touch are on the urgent agenda of the nation
Our prisons should be correctional houses not cruel iron aching the soul We have given thought to another humanising strategy viz a guarded parole release every three months for at least a week punctuating the total prison term
We direct the State Government to extend this parole facility to the appellant Jail Rules permitting and the appellant submitting to conditions of discipline and initiation into an uplifting exercise during the parole interval
We further direct the Advisory Board of the Person periodically to check whether the appellant is making progress and the Jail authorities are helping in the process and implementing the prescription hereinabove given
Indeed the direction of prison reform is not towards dehumanization but dehumanization not maim and mayhem and vulgar callousness but man making experiments designed to restore the dignity of the individual and the worth of the human person
This majuscule strategy involves orientation courses for the prison personnel
The State will not hesitate we expect to respect the personality in each convict in the spirit of the Preamble to the Constitution and will not permit the colonial hangover of putting people behind the bars  and then forget about them
This nation cannot and if it remembers its incarcerated leaders and freedom fighters will not but revolutionize the conditions inside that grim little world
We make these persistent observations only to drive home the imperative of Freedom that its deprivation by the State is validated only by a plan to make the sentencee more worthy of that birthright
There is a spiritual dimension to the first page of our Constitution which projects into penology
Indian courts may draw inspiration from Patanjali sutra even as they derive punitive patterns from the Penal Code most of Indian meditational therapy is based on the sutras of Patanjali
Before we close this judgment we wish to dispel a possible misapprehension about the fine we are imposing upon the cheat although we have proceeded on the footing of his family being relatively indigent
The further direction for making over the fine to the deceivees also needs a small explanation
165 There is nothing in principle as Lord Parker pointed out in R V King 1970 2 AR
E R 248 to prevent a court from imposing a fine even when imposing a suspended sentence of imprisonment Indeed in many cases it is quite a good thing to impose a fine which adds a sting of course the fine should not be altogether beyond the sentences means
As to whether it is wrong to make a sort of compensation order in a case of a convicted person without much means again Lord Parker in R V Ironfield 1971 1 All
E R 202 has observed If a man takes someone else s property or goods he is liable in Law to make restitution or pay compensation
A victim need not be put to the additional trouble and expense of independent proceedings and certainly cannot be required to forego his rights in order to facilitate the rehabilitation of the man who has despoiled him
 Counsel for the appellant has repeated that his client is taking examination in Accountancy an indication of this anxiety to improve himself
We have no doubt that the jail authorities will afford facilities to the appellant to do his last minutes studies and take the examination and for that purpose allow him to go to any library and the examination hall under proper conditions of security
The affidavit on behalf of the State indicates that a tendency to turn a new page is discernible in the appellant and this has to be strengthened imaginatively by the Jail Superintendent if need be by affording him opportunity for initiation into Transcendental Meditation courses or like exercises provided the appellant shows an appetite in that direction and facilities are available in Hyderabad City
Shri P P Rao for the State has represented that the Andhra Pradesh Government is processing rules for payment of wages to prisoners who work but that it may take a few months more for finalisation
It is a little surprising that at least two decades or more have been spent in this country after Freedom discussing active programmes of correction although in some States for long years the wage system has been in vogue
Andhra Pradesh State will rise to this civilized norm and when it finalises rules will take care to see that the wages rates are reasonable and not trivial and that retrospective effect will be given to see that at least from October 2 1976 the birthday of the Father of the Nation effect is given to the wage policy
Shri Sastry for the appellant assured the Court that he had been instructed to state that Rs 1200 would be paid right away out of the fine imposed
We allow the appeal in humanist part as outlined above while affirming the conviction
More concretely we direct that a the sentence shall be reduced to 18 eighteen months less the period already undergone b our directions above mentioned regarding parole and assignment of suitable work and payment of wages in jail shall be complied with and c the appellant shall pay a fine of 166 Rs 1200 
We appreciate the services of counsel Shri P P Rao in disposing of this appeal justly
We may also mention that Shri G V RSastry appearing for the appellant has also helped the court towards the same en PHP Appeal allowed


Summary:
The appellant along with another accused deceived several desperate unemployed youngmen received various sums of Rs 1200 by false pretences that they would secure jobs for them through politically influential friends and other make believe representations
The offence of cheating under a 420 was made out and all the 3 courts concurrently convicted both the accused
The appellant was sentenced to 3 years rigorous imprisonment
The appellant is an unemployed youngman around 28 years old and used to work as a Junior Assistant in the Andhra Pradesh Secretariat
This Court granted special leave limited to the question of sentence
Allowing the appeal partly HELD  1 The pre sentencing provision in section 2482 Cr P C has a penological significance of far reaching import which has been lost on the trial magistrate
Reform of the black letter law is a time lagging process
At an the three tiers the focus was on the serious nature of the crime and no ray of light on the criminal or on the pertinent variety of social facts surrounding him penetrated the forensic mentation
153 D E 2Since the whole territory of punishment in its modern setting is virtually virgin so far as our country is concerned the court went into the subject in some incisive depth for the guidance of the subordinate judiciary
155 G 3Progressive criminologists in the world agree that the Gandhian diagnosis of offenders as patients and his conception of prisons as hospitals mental and moral is the key to the pathology of delinquency and the therapeutic role of punishment
The whole man is a healthy man and every man is born good
Criminality is a curable deviance
If every saint has a past every sinner has a future and it is the role of law to remind both of this
155 B C 4Man is subject to more stresses and strains in this age than ever before and a new class of crimes arising from restlessness of the spirit and frustration of ambitions has erupted
White collar crime as in the present case belong to this disease of man s inside
Barbarity and injury recoils as injury so that if healing the mentally or morally maimed or malformed man is the goal awakening the inner being more than torturing through exterior compulsions holds out better curative hopes
The infliction of harsh and savage punishment is thus a relic of past and regressive times
Today sentencing should be a process of re shaping a person who has deteriorated into criminality and the modern community has a primary stake in the rehabilitation of the offender as a means of social defence
Therefore a therapeutic rather than a terrors outlook should prevail in our criminal courts
156 E H 157 C D Tejani AIR 1974 S C 228 236 Jagmohan Singh  and Santa Singh  referred to
5There is a great discretion vested in the judge while imposing sentence
The Judge must exercise this discretionary power draw his inspiration from the humanitarian spirit of the law living down the traditional precedents which have winked at the personality of the crime doer and been swept away by the features of the crime
Unfortunately the Indian Penal Code still lingers in the somewhat compartmentalised system of punishment viz imprisonment 154 simple or rigorous fine and of course capital sentence
There is a wide range of choice and flexible treatment which must be available with the Judge if he is to fulfil his tryst with curing the criminal in a hospital setting
Rule of thumb sentences of rigorous imprisonment or other are too insensitive to the highly delicate and subtle operation expected of a sentencing judge
Release on probation conditional sentences visits to healing centres are all on the cards
161 E H 162 A 6In the present case the crime is doubly bad and throws light on how gullible youngmen part with hard earned money in the hope that political influence indirectly purchased through money can secure jobs obliquely
But the victims of the crime must be commiserated with and in such white Collar offences it is proper to insist upon reparation of the victims apart from any other sentence
The Court therefore directed the appellant to pay a fine of Rs 1200 which was directed to be made over by the Trial Court to PW 1 who was victim in the present case
162 E FG 7The appellant is a youngman of 28 years
He has a degree in Oriental Languages and another in Commerce
He was working as a Junior Assistant in the Government Secretariat and has now lost the post consequent on the conviction
This is a hard lesson in life
The socioeconomic circumstances of the man deserve notice
His parents are old and financially weak
His parents sisters and younger brothers are his dependents
The younger brother is also unemployed
These factors suggest that the economic blow if the appellant is imprisoned for long will be upon his brother at College and other members of his family
He had not committed any previous crime
The court rejected the prayer of the appellant for release on probation on the ground that the appellant had a deliberate plan behind the crime operated in partnership upon 4 or more persons and that his age is such that he cannot be called immature The court however reduced the sentence to 18 months
The court also recommended that a he should not be given work of a monotonous mechanical degrading type but of a mental intellectual or like type mixed with a little manual labour
This would ensure that the person does work more or less of the kind he used to b the appellant must be paid a reasonable fraction of remuneration by way of wages for the work done as unpaid work is bonded labour and humiliating c the appellant should be allowed to participate in sports and games and take to artistic activity andor meditational course
He should be given such opportunities by the Jail authorities as would stimulate his creativity and sensitivity
d a guarded parole release every 3 months for at least a week
162 H 163 A E Humanitarian winds must blow into the prison barricades
Jail reforms from abolition of convict s costume and conscript labour to restoration and fraternal touch are on the urgent agenda of the nation
Our prisons should be correctional houses and not cruel iron aching the soul
164 C The court observed that the State should not hesitate to respect the personality in each convict in the spirit of the preamble to the Constitution and not to permit the colonial hangover of putting people behind the bars and then forget about them
164 F R vs King and R vs Ironfield  referred to