IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Criminal Revision No.374 of 2005 Date of Decision 18.11.2010 Joginder Singh @ Laloo ...... Petitioner VERSUS State of Punjab ...... Respondent CORAM:- HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE A.N.JINDAL Present: Mr.S.Sandhu, Advocate, for the petitioner. Mr.O.P.Dabla, Deputy Advocate General, Punjab, for the respondent-State. ***** A.N.JINDAL, J: The petitioner-accused (herein referred as 'the petitioner') has assailed the judgment dated 05.02.2005, passed by Addl. Sessions Judge, Ferozepur, dismissing his appeal against the judgment dated 04.11.2003, passed by Chief Judicial Magistrate, Ferozepur, convicting and sentencing him to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of six months and to pay a fine of Rs.1,000/- under Section 61 of the Punjab Excise Act, 1914 (for brevity 'the Act'). The allegations against the petitioner are that he was found having in his possession 40 bottles of liquor without any permit or licence. He was charged, tried and ultimately convicted and sentenced accordingly. His appeal also failed. Without assailing the judgment of conviction, learned counsel has prayed for extending some leniency on the quantum of sentence. Even otherwise, on scrutiny of the impugned judgment, the evidence, as examined by the prosecution, appears to have been appreciated Criminal Revision No.374 of 2005 -2- in the right perspective. No such illegality much less irregularity was found or detected in the conduct of the trial or procedure, which may result into miscarriage of justice, therefore, the findings of fact returned by the Courts below regarding conviction do not call for any interference at this revisional stage. Now coming to the quantum of sentence, it is noticed that the occurrence took place way back in the year 1999. The petitioner has already suffered a lot of agony on account of protracted proceedings in the Courts for the last eleven years and the sword of sentence remained hanging over his head since then. He has already undergone more than one month of the substantive sentence. Under the peculiar circumstances of the present case, it would be in the fitness of things to reduce the sentence to some extent. Resultantly, this petition is dismissed with the modification in the sentence which is reduced to three months without any alteration in the sentence of fine. Copy of the order be sent to the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Ferozepur, for compliance. (A.N.Jindal) Judge 18.11.2010 mamta-II