IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Criminal Revision No.102 of 2000 Date of decision: 25th February, 2009 Manohar Singh … Petitioner Versus State of Punjab … Respondent CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE KANWALJIT SINGH AHLUWALIA Present: Mr. H.S. Gill, Senior Advocate with Mr. Vivek Goel, Advocate for the petitioner. Mr. Mehardeep Singh, Assistant Advocate General Punjab for the State. KANWALJIT SINGH AHLUWALIA, J. (ORAL) Manohar Singh son of Fauja Singh was prosecuted in case FIR No.46 dated 24.04.1994 registered at Police Station Sadar Khanna, under Sections 279, 304-A IPC. From the facts gathered, it emerges that complainant Devinder Singh on 24th April, 1994, made a statement to ASI Nachhatar Singh, that he along with Jaswinder Singh was going in a truck bearing registration No.PBV-3841 from Nandpur towards Khanna for domestic work. Truck was being driven by him and Jaswinder Singh was sitting along with him. When they reached near village Kishangarh, a Maruti car bearing registration No.PB10F-0409 was seen going ahead of the truck. Pawan Kumar of village Nandpur was driving the car and Joginder Singh was sitting in the rear seat of the car. The car was at slow speed, when a bus came from the wrong side. Number of the bus was PB12A-9319. The bus was carelessly driven. No horn was blown and due to rash and negligent driving of the bus belonging to Punjab Roadways, Pathankot, Criminal Revision No.102 of 2000 accident took place. Pawan Kumar driver of the car died at the spot and Joginder Singh received injuries on his leg, arm and forehead. He was rescued from the site of accident and was sent to CMC Hospital, Ludhiana, where he also died later. Mr. H.S. Gill, Senior Advocate appearing along with Mr.Vivek Goel on behalf of the petitioner, at the outset has stated that he will not be able to assail petitioner’s conviction, which has been recorded by two courts below, as no patent illegality or irregularity has been committed. The case is entirely in the realm of appreciation of the evidence. Mr.Gill has submitted that accident, in the present case, has taken place on 24th April, 1994 and petitioner has suffered a protracted trial. Therefore, he prays that taking into consideration the protracted trial and the fact that petitioner has committed no offence in the last 15 years, sentence awarded upon the petitioner be reduced. I find merit in the submissions made by the counsel for the petitioner. Accordingly, sentence awarded upon the petitioner is reduced from 1 year and 3 months to nine months. With these modifications in the sentence, present revision petition is disposed off. [KANWALJIT SINGH AHLUWALIA] JUDGE February 25, 2009 rps 2