Criminal Misc. No.M-16546 of 2008 -1- *** IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Criminal Misc. No.M-16546 of 2008 Date of decision : 24.9.2008 Gurbachan Singh .....Petitioner Versus State of Punjab ...Respondent **** CORAM : HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE S. D. ANAND Present: Ms. Manpreet Kaur, Advocate as Amicus Curiae for the petitioner Ms. Manjari Nehru, Deputy Advocate General, Punjab **** S. D. ANAND, J. The impugned application was presented to the Administrative Judge, Ferozepur Sessions Division, Ferozepur in the course of the jail visit and it was ordered to be taken up on the judicial side. In the course of the application, petitioner applied for grant of an order directing that the sentences awarded to him in case (FIR No. 87 dated 26.9.1993 under Section 302 IPC, Police Station City, Ferozepur and FIR No. 162 dated 17.5.1993, under Sections 302/449 IPC and 27 of the Arms Act, Police Station Sadar, Ferozepur) on 2.12.1994 and 31.10.1995 respectively, shall run concurrently. No such plea was presented before both the Courts which recorded the verdict dated 2.12.1994 and also 31.10.1995. I have heard Ms. Manpreet Kaur, learned Amicus Curiae and Ms. Manjari Nehru, learned Deputy Advocate General, Punjab and Criminal Misc. No.M-16546 of 2008 -2- *** carefully gone through the record. In support of the averment that grant of the requested direction is in order, learned Amicus Curiae relies upon State of Maharashtra Vs. Najakat Alia Mubarak Ali 2001 (2) R.C.R. (Criminal) 778. In that very context, he also draws sustenance from the provisions of Section 427 (2) of the Cr.P.C. The plea raised by her is that an order of concurrence shall automatically follow if a person sentenced in an earlier case is convicted and sentenced in another case at a subsequent point of time. The plea is resisted by the learned State counsel who places reliance upon a Full Bench ruling of this Court in Jang Singh Vs. State of Punjab 2008 (1) RCR (Criminal) 323 and the Apex Court ruling reported as M.R.Kudva Vs. State of Andhra Pradesh 2007 (1) RCR (Criminal) 868. I have given my anxious thought to the point in controversy. I do not find any force in the plea on behalf of the petitioner. All that the Apex Court held in State of Maharashtra's case (supra) was that an accused who was convicted in two cases can claim benefit of set of under Section 428 Cr.P.C. However, that judicial pronouncement is not applicable to the present case as the petitioner did not raise that plea at the time those cases came to be disposed of. Apart therefrom, learned Amicus Curiae informs that an appeal preferred by the petitioner against his conviction in one of those cases is pending consideration before this Court. It is also conceded by her that the plea of concurrence has not been raised till date before the Court which is seized of that appeal. The facts in issue in M.R. Kudva's case (supra), were entirely different. In that case, the provisions of Section 427 Cr.P.C. were not invoked at the time of trial or in appeal. A separate application for obtaining an order on point of Criminal Misc. No.M-16546 of 2008 -3- *** concurrence was filed before the Court after the Special Leave Petition had been dismissed. The High Court of Andhra Pradesh rejected the request. The Apex Court upheld that order by observing that “the High Court could not have exercised such jurisdiction while passing the judgments in appeal. Section 482 of the code was, therefore, not an appropriate remedy hjaving regard to the fact that neither the trial Judge, nor the High Court while passing the judgments of conviction and sentence indicated that the sentences passed against the appellant in both the cases shall run concurrently of Section 427 would be attracted. The said provision, therefore, could not be applied in a separate and independent proceeding by the High Court.” In the light of the foregoing discussion, the petition is held to be devoid of force and is ordered to be dismissed. The disposal of petition shall be intimated to the petitioner who is undergoing incarceration at Central Jail,Ferozepur. September 24, 2008 (S. D. ANAND) Pka JUDGE