IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Criminal Revision No.1978 of 2005 Date of Decision 01.12.2010 Pappu ...... Petitioner VERSUS State of Punjab ...... Respondent CORAM:- HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE A.N.JINDAL Present: Mr.R.K.Girdhar, Advocate, for the petitioner. Mr.Amit Chaudhary, Asstt. Advocate General, for the respondent-State. ***** A.N.JINDAL, J: The petitioner has assailed the judgment dated 30.09.2005, passed by the Appellate Court at Muktsar, dismissing the appeal against the judgment dated 14.09.2004, passed by Sub Divisional Judicial Magistrate, Malout, convicting and sentencing the petitioner-accused (herein referred as 'the petitioner') to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of seven months and to pay a fine of Rs.1,000/- under Section 61(1)(a) of the Punjab Excise Act(for brevity 'the Act'). The allegations against the petitioner are that on 11.01.2000 he was found having 30 bottles of illicit liquor in his possession. He was challaned, charged, tried, convicted and sentenced accordingly. His appeal also failed. Without assailing the judgment of conviction, learned counsel has sought to extend some leniency to the petitioner 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.1978 of 2005 -2- in the right perspective. No such illegality much less irregularity was found or detected in the conduct of trial or procedure resulting into miscarriage of justice or cause any prejudice to the petitioner, 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 2000; the petitioner has already suffered a lot of agony on account of the pendency of proceedings in the Courts for the last ten years and he has already undergone about one month of the substantive sentence, therefore, 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 to that of already undergone. However, the sentence of fine is enhanced to Rs.3,000/- which would be paid by the petitioner within three months from today, failing which, he would serve the remaining part of sentence as awarded by the Courts below. Copy of the order be sent to the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Muktsar, for compliance. (A.N.Jindal) Judge 01.12.2010 mamta-II