Case: Lalsai Khunte Vs. Nirmal Sinha

Courts have to interpret the law as it stands and not on considerations which may be perceived to be morally more correct or ethical." 10. Therefore, this Court in recent decisions held that the appellate Court has power to stay the execution of the conviction and if appellate Court has stayed the conviction then in that case, this will not operate as a disqualification. But simply order of suspension of the sentence will not operate as staying the conviction. It was specifically mentioned that the stay of order of the conviction will mean it is temporarily non-operative. As already mentioned above, in the present case it is clearly transpired that the appellate Court suspended the order of the trial court dt. 9th May, 2002 and granted the bail to the accused appellant. The suspension does not mean the stay of the conviction. We have ourselves seen the application for suspension of sentence. The said application is a routine application under Section 389 whereby the appellant sought for the suspension of sentence. There is nothing in that application to suggest that the applicant therein had sought the stay of conviction in contra-distinction to the suspension of sentence. In Ravi Kant Patels case cited supra, it will be seen that an application for stay of conviction was specifically filed specifying the consequences if the conviction was not stayed. This Court had taken that fact into consideration while holding that in that case the conviction was specifically stayed. Such is not the case here. If the incumbent had been vigilant enough, he could have moved the court even later on after obtaining the stay of conviction particularly in view of the fact that he wanted to contest the election but that was not done. 11. In the case of Rama Narang Vs. Ramesh Narang and Ors. reported in {1995) 2 SCC 513 their Lordships were examining the effect of conviction under the Companies Act, 1956, that what is the effect of the conviction of Managing Director for an offence involving moral turpitude as disqualification and suspension of that conviction by the appellate court. This Court after examining the question took the view that Section 389(1) of the CR.P.C. confers the power on appellate Court to stay the operation of the order of the conviction. If the order of conviction is to result to some disqualification of the type mentioned in Section 267 of the Companies act, a narrow meaning should not be given to Section 389(1) of the Code to bar the Court from granting an order staying operation of order of conviction in a fit case. Therefore, their Lordships were very clear that Section 389(1) of the Code empowers the appellate court to stay the conviction also. But suspension will not amount to staying the conviction. It was held as under: 12. That takes us to the question whether the scope of Section 389(1) of the Code extends to conferring power on the Appellate Court to stay the operation of the order of conviction. As stated earlier, if the order of conviction is to result in some disqualification of the type mentioned in section 267 of the Companies Act, we see no reason why we should give a narrow meaning to Section 389(1) of the Code to debar the court from granting an order to that effect in a fit case. The appeal under Section 374 is essentially against the order of conviction because the order of sentence is merely consequential thereto; albeit even the order of sentence can be independently challenged if it is harsh and disproportionate to the established guilt. Therefore, when an appeal is preferred under Section 374 of the Code the appeal is against both the conviction and sentence and therefore, we see no reason to place a narrow interpretation on Section 389(1) of the Code not to extend it to an order of conviction, although that issue in the instant case recedes to the background because High Courts can exercise inherent jurisdiction under Section 482 of the Code if the power was not to be found in Section 389(1) of the Code. We are, therefore, of the opinion that the Division Bench of the High Court of Bombay was not right in holding that the Delhi High Court could not have exercised jurisdiction under Section 482 of the Code if it was confronted with a situation of there being no other provision in the Code for staying the operation of the order of conviction. In a fit case if the High Court feels satisfied that the order of conviction needs to be suspended or stayed so that the convicted person does not suffer from a certain disqualification provided for in any other statute, it may exercise the power because otherwise the damage done cannot be undone; the disqualification incurred by Section 267 of the Companies Act and given effect to cannot be undone at a subsequent date if the conviction is set aside by the Appellate Court. But while granting a stay of (sic or) suspension of the order of conviction the Court must examine the pros and cons and if it feels satisfied that a case is made out for grant of such an order, it may do so and in so doing it may, if it considers it appropriate, impose such conditions as are considered appropriate to protect the interest of the shareholders and the business of the company. 13. As already pointed out above that on 31st May, 2002, the appellate Court while granting him the bail only suspended the impugned order dated 9th May, 2002. Thus suspension does not amount to temporarily washing out the conviction. The conviction still remains, only the operation of the order and the sentence remain suspended that does not amount to temporary stay of the conviction. A specific order staying conviction has to be sought. Hence, the view taken by the learned Single Judge of the Chhattisgarh High Court is correct and there is no ground to interfere.

Decision (1 = appeal accepted, 0 = rejected): 0

Explanation:
0[ds]The appeal under Section 374 is essentially against the order of conviction because the order of sentence is merely consequential thereto; albeit even the order of sentence can be independently challenged if it is harsh and disproportionate to the established guilt. Therefore, when an appeal is preferred under Section 374 of the Code the appeal is against both the conviction and sentence and therefore, we see no reason to place a narrow interpretation on Section 389(1) of the Code not to extend it to an order of conviction, although that issue in the instant case recedes to the background because High Courts can exercise inherent jurisdiction under Section 482 of the Code if the power was not to be found in Section 389(1) of the Code. We are, therefore, of the opinion that the Division Bench of the High Court of Bombay was not right in holding that the Delhi High Court could not have exercised jurisdiction under Section 482 of the Code if it was confronted with a situation of there being no otherhe Code for staying the operation of the order of conviction. In a fit case if the High Court feels satisfied that the order of conviction needs to be suspended or stayed so that the convicted person does not suffer from a certain disqualification provided for in any other statute, it may exercise the power because otherwise the damage done cannot be undone; thed by Section 267 of the Companies Act and given effect to cannot be undone at a subsequent date if the conviction is set aside by the Appellate Court. But while granting a stay ofsuspension of the order of conviction the Court must examine the pros and cons and if it feels satisfied that a case is made out for grant of such an order, it may do so and in so doing it may, if it considers it appropriate, impose such conditions as are considered appropriate to protect the interest of the shareholders and the business of the company.