IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Criminal Appeal No. 683-SB of 1999 Date of decision: 8th February, 2010 State of Punjab … Appellant Versus Surjit Singh … Respondent CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE KANWALJIT SINGH AHLUWALIA Present: Mr. J.S. Bhullar, Assistant Advocate General, Punjab for the appellant-State. None for the respondent. KANWALJIT SINGH AHLUWALIA, J. (ORAL) Present appeal has been preferred by the State of Punjab for enhancement of the sentence. State of Punjab is aggrieved that Surjit Singh accused respondent, who was found guilty of offence under Section 408 IPC, has only been sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for three months and to pay fine of Rs.100/-, in default of payment of fine to further undergo rigorous imprisonment for 15 days. Surjit Singh respondent was nominated as accused in case FIR No. 45 dated 01.04.1990 registered at Police Station Bhadaur under Sections 408/409 IPC. Surjit Singh was posted as Secretary in Cooperative Agricultural Service Society Pvt. Ltd., Jangiana. There was an allegation against accused respondent that he had misappropriated the amount of the Society, as he after receiving the amount and the interest from members of the Society had neither entered the same in the Criminal Appeal No.683-SB of 1999 records of the Society nor deposited the same with the Bank. It was alleged that the accused respondent had misappropriated Rs.4,03,936.30. The amount of misappropriation pertains to various periods. Therefore, in the above said FIR, three challans were submitted by the Investigating Agency. The present case pertains to challan No.28 of 4th May, 1991. For this challan, charge was framed against the accused respondent that he had committed criminal breach of trust of Rs.4,769.50. In challan No.26, allegation was that respondent accused was entrusted with an amount of Rs.3,819.50 and he had committed criminal breach of trust of the said property. In challan No.30, the charge was that accused respondent was entrusted with an amount of Rs.4,289.00 and he had committed criminal breach of trust of the amount which was entrusted to him. In all the three challans, accused respondent was sentenced to undergo three months rigorous imprisonment and to pay fine of Rs.100/-, in default of payment of fine to further undergo rigorous imprisonment for 15 days. The total amount of misappropriation in the three challans for which three separate trials were conducted comes to Rs.13,000/-. The alleged amount was entrusted to the accused respondent on 12th December, 1985, 31st May, 1985 and 5th January, 1986 respectively. A period of about 25 years is going to elapse. The sentence was awarded to the accused respondent in year 1999. He has already undergone the sentence. Therefore, the prayer made by Mr.J.S. Bhullar, Assistant Advocate General, Punjab that the sentence awarded was inadequate, therefore the same be enhanced, cannot be considered, as there will be no justification to enhance the sentence after 25 years of the occurrence and this Court is conscious that the amount of misappropriation was not that large, which warrants enhancement of the sentence. 2 Criminal Appeal No.683-SB of 1999 Accordingly, Criminal Appeal No.683-SB of 1999 pertaining to challan No.28 dated 4th May, 1991 is dismissed, being devoid of any merit. [KANWALJIT SINGH AHLUWALIA] JUDGE February 8, 2010 rps 3