Case ID: 4103

Judgment:
N: Criminal Appeal No. 313 of 1978. Appeal by Special Leave from the Judgment and Order dated 22 3 78 of the Punjab and Haryana High Court in Criminal Appeal No. 189/75. A. section Sohal and section K. Jain for the Appellant. Hardev Singh for the Respondent. The Judgment of the Court was delivered by KRISHNA IYER	 J. Every litigative appeal has a docket number but beneath the paper lurks a human factor	 often forgotten in the forensic pugilists but now and then brought to the fore	 as in this criminal appeal limited to the issue of appropriate sentence. Surely	 'the law must keep its promises. ' Justice Holmes expressed the obvious when he said this	 but the breach of promise by the law on delivering criminal justice is daily experience	 from police arrest to prison trauma. The focus in this case is on the sentencing alternatives in the Criminal Procedure Code; and the grievance pressed by counsel	 when traditional grounds on the merits failed	 was that the compassion of section 360 professionally suffering benign neglect	 be kindled and he be released. Enacted law is guilty of inaction	 because its obscure presence on the statute book escapes the vigilance of the Bar. Where even the court ignores what is vital to the little man the guarantee of 1136 sentencing legality becomes a casualty. This case is an instance in point. Now the brief story which enlivens the 'sentencing ' submissions. Four villagers of rural Punjab	 of whom the appellant is one	 set upon Arjan Singh	 a small official	 while on his way back home. The sound and fury of the attack with sticks brought out the ill starred	 innocent Srimati Rakhi	 Arjan Singh 's brother 's wife. Her daughter too came to the spot attracted by the fracas. Arjan Singh received blows	 being the angry target of the assailants. But poor Rakhi	 who came in accidentally	 was hit on the head with a takua by Jagir Singh	 one of the accused. She eventually died; and her daughter and Arjan Singh were hurt by the beating. Four persons were charged by the police with offences under section 302	 324 and 323 I.P.C. including constructive liability under section 34. Two of them were acquitted by the trial court and the other two were convicted but appealed to the High Court. The man who dealt the fatal cut was Jagir Singh. His conviction under section 302 I.P.C. and award of life imprisonment by the Sessions Court was converted into one under section 304 Part 1	 I.P.C. with a consequential reduction of sentence to seven years ' rigorous imprisonment. His conviction on certain other counts was maintained but we are not concerned with him at all	 since the appellant in this Court is the other accused Dilbag Singh. His role was lesser and related to causing simple injury to Arjan Singh for which he was sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for one year and a fine of Rs. 200/ . He was held vicariously guilty under sections 324/34 I.P.C. and awarded two years ' rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs. 1000/ . In addition he was convicted under section 323 I.P.C. for causing hurt to the daughter of the deceased and on this count punished with R.I. for one year together with a fine of Rs. 200/ . Having declined leave on the question of guilt	 we confine our attention to the contentions on the sentence. We proceed on the footing of the facts found and ask ourselves whether any basic flaw in sentencing technology affords appellate intervention and re designing of reformatory treatment in the conspectus of circumstances present in the case. The courts in our country consult the punitive tariffs prescribed in the Penal Code	 consult the prison period awarded in practice for such offences and with marginal variations mechanise the process. Judged by that test	 conviction under section 324 I.P.C. read with section 34 plus substantive guilt under section 323 I.P.C. is visited with two years for the former and one year R.I. especially when the incident has ended in death. But penal humanitarianism	 strategies of non institutional rehabilitation and 1137 a complex of other considerations in making an offender a non offender have revolutionized the judicial repertory in re socializing the criminal. The sentence hearing for which the Criminal Procedure Code	 1973 provides in section 248(2) and section 235(2) has hardly received the serious concern of the Courts despite the International Probation Year and therapeutic accent in penological literature. 'If the criminal law as a whole is the Cinderella of jurisprudence	 then the law of sentencing is Cinderella 's illegitimate baby '. Pre sentence investigation reports	 bestowal of intelligent care on the choice between institutional and non institutional disposition and habitual neglect of new avenues open to the court have constrained us to grant leave in the case so that guidelines may be laid down and probation and community oriented methods lying in the legal limbs may be re activated. Our prisons are overcrowded	 our prisoners are subjected to iatrogenic incarceration	 our penal drills are self defeatingly callous to correctional measures and our jail budgets bulge without countervailing community benefits because the Bench and the Bar have dismissed as below judicial visibility such patterns as probation	 conditional release. The time has come for Courts to abandon the Monroe Doctrine towards penology and concern itself with innovative sentences. But this involves careful study of the convict and his potentiality for reform	 not guess work nor insensitive assessments. Therefore	 we directed	 right at the start	 the Chief Probation Officer	 Punjab	 to make a report to this Court "as to the social circumstances and other relevant factors bearing on the consideration of eligibility of the petitioner to probation." That report has been received and its contents indicate competent advertence to pertinent criteria which we may briefly sum up. The appellant is 32 years old. His behavioral attitude is stated to be "obedient and law respecting in nature". The officer goes on to state that the prisoner 's character is fairly good	 that he is upright	 alert and interested in rural games. Of course	 he seems to be wrestler of the locality which is good if it is practised as a game but dangerous if he exercises his muscles on other people 's flesh. More importantly are the social influences that bear upon restraint and good behaviour. He is a petty farmer who left school in his teens	 has ten acres of land belonging to the joint family of himself and five brothers and the mother. Being a cultivator and living in the joint family circumstances the officer finds no adverse remarks against him in the locality. On the other hand	 the report refers to his great respect for the former Sarpanch of the village. His family circumstances evoke commiseration because his father is dead having been murdered in 1960. His mother is alive 1138 and has to be maintained by himself and his two brothers who are truck drivers and the third a jawan. He has his own nuclear family to maintain with a young wife and four children. A pitiable factor is that his elder daughter is paralytic from birth. His social position shows that he belongs to a lower middle class family	 lives by agriculture	 loves his mother and brothers and has earned the good will of his neighbours who think that the occurrence was induced by an irritating land issue and temporary intoxication. A Sense of remorse has overcome him according to the Probation Officer who says that he is a first offender and not a recidivist. It is a painful fact	 as noted in the report that this criminal case has cost him a tidy sum	 loss of prestige and even family separation. In the unrefined English of the Probation Officer we may summarise his assessment of the offender: "It was met of an accident as offender client Dilbagh Singh seems to be law abiding and God fearing. His one weakness is wine and that is the route cause of the present diviation	 otherwise on the whole offender 's behaviour is normal and adjustable. The offender is in curable stage as crime has not gone deep into him. He can be adjustable amicably within his normal and natural environmental factors. The client can easily be reformed as he is neither professional criminal nor exhibits any tendency to future deviation. " The social milieu	 the domestic responsibilities	 the respect for the former Sarpanch he shows	 the general goodwill he commands are plus points. The tragic fact of his father 's murder and the running misfortune of his young daughter 's paralysed limbs are sour facets of his life. The circumstance that he is gainfully employed as agriculturist and his brothers	 though in diverse occupations	 remain joint family members	 are hopeful factors. The aggressive episode which led to his conviction was induced by the company of his cousin who serves a seven year sentence and the inebriation due to drinking habit. This simple villager responsible and gentle	 sad and burdened	 repentant and drained of his little wealth by the criminal case	 has a long way to go in life being in his early thirtys. The drinks vice was the minus point. Many a peaceable person	 on slight irritation	 suffers bellicose switch over under alcoholic consumption. How does judicial discretion operate in this skew of circumstances? To jail him is mechanical farewell to the finer sentencing sensitivity of the judge of salvaging a redeemable man by non institutionalised treatment. The human consequences of the confinement process here will 1139 be no good to society and much injury to the miserable family and	 above all	 hardening a young man into bad behaviour	 with prestige punctured	 family injured	 and society ill served. Nor was the crime such	 so far as his part was involved	 as to deserve long deterrent incarceration. Our prison system	 until humane and purposeful reforms pervades	 surely injures	 never improves. Prison justice has promises to keep	 and ethological changes geared to curative goals are still alien from dress and bed	 refusal of frequent parole and insistence of mechanical chores	 bonded labour	 nocturnal tensions	 and no scheme to reform and many traditions to repress such is the zoological institutional realism and rehabilitative bankruptcy which inflict social and financial costs upon the State.(1) It is wasted sadism to lug this man into counter productive imprisonment for one year. Long years ago	 Franklin D. Roosevelt	 in a forward looking speech on John Day	 said: "If the criminal 's past history gives good reason to believe that he is not of the naturally criminal type	 that he is capable of real reform and of becoming a useful citizen	 there is no doubt that probation	 viewed from the selfish standpoint of protection to society alone	 is the most efficient method that we have. And yet it is the least understood	 the least developed	 the least appreciated of all our efforts to rid society of the criminal. "(2) The appellant has served a substantial part of his sentence in jail because of judicial innocence of the normae in the area of non institutional disposition. It is easy to imprison	 hard to individualise punishment. Sentencing legality is violated when the judge shirks. And the Bar is often alien to correctional alternatives and concentrates its ammunition on culpability and extenuatory scaling down of imprisonment. The observations of the United States Supreme Court in Williams vs New York ; 	 249) lay the right stress on pre sentence reports: "have been given a high value by conscientious judges who want to sentence persons on the best available information rather than on guess work and inadequate infor 1140 mation. To deprive sentencing judges of this kind of information would undermine modern penological procedural policies that have been cautiously adopted throughout the nation after careful consideration and experimentation." Judge F. Rayan Duffy has written: "If the judge has before him a complete and accurate pre sentence investigation report which sets forth the conditions	 circumstances	 background	 and surroundings of the defendant	 and the circumstances underlying the offense which has been committed	 the judge can then impose sentence with greater assurance that he has adopted the proper course. He can do so with much greater peace of mind. "(1) The purpose of section 360 of the Code is precisely this; the goal of section 235(2) is just this. And yet	 the exacting art is more honoured in the breach than in the observance if we many wrongly use a Shakespearean passage to drive home our point. We stress the legal position so that subordinate courts may not treat conviction as the terminal point but the end of one chapter. We are mindful of the complexity and remove the impression that easy resort to section 360 is right. No; it is wrong. Two quotes set the record straight. "Imprisonment is the appropriate sentence when the offender must be isolated from the community in order to protect society or if he can learn to readjust his attitudes and patterns of behaviour only in a closely controlled environment. "(2) "The consequences of a sentence are of the highest order. If too short or of the wrong type	 it can deprive the law of its effectiveness and result in the premature release of a dangerous criminal. If too severe or improperly conceived	 it can reinforce the criminal tendencies of the defendant and lead to a new offence by one who otherwise might not have offended so seriously again. The decision which is presented at sentencing is also enormously complex. It properly is concerned	 and often predominantly	 with the future which can be predicted for the particular offender. But any single valued approach to sentencing is misdirected. A sentence which is not in some 1141 fashion limited in accordance with the particular offence can lead to a system of incomparable brutality. Per contra	 a sentence or pattern of sentence which fails to take due account of the gravity of the offence can seriously undermine respect for law. "(1) In this case	 after perusal of the report of the Probation Officer	 counsel for the State	 Sri Hardev Singh	 with fair candour and shared correctness	 consented to a release of the prisoner under section 360. We agree. But one fact needs emphasis. The close nexus between violence and alcohol is a call to the State in every criminal investigation to identify the role of alcohol in the commission of the offence and in every prisoner 's treatment to provide for anti alcoholic therapy. To fail here is vicarious guilt of the State to Society. We direct release of the appellant forthwith. He will enter into a bond before the trial court together with Shri Dilbag Singh S/o Babu Singh as surety in the amount of Rs. 1000/ within two weeks of his release to keep the peace	 be of good behaviour	 to abjure alcohol and not to commit offence for a period of three years and to appear and receive sentence	 if called upon in the meantime. The appeal is allowed with this direction which is the Q.E.D. of sentencing justice. V.D.K. Appeal allowed.

Summary:
In the case of a trial before a court of session	 under section 235(2) Criminal Procedure Code "if the accused is convicted	 the Judge shall	 unless he proceeds in accordance with the provisions of section 360	 hear the accused on the question of sentence	 and then pass sentence on him according to law." Similarly	 in the case of trial of warrant cases by Magistrates	 under section 248 (2) of the Code	 "where the Magistrate finds the accused guilty	 but does not proceed in accordance with the provisions of section 325 or section 360	 he shall after hearing the accused on the question of sentence	 pass sentence upon him according to law. " Section 361 of the Code mandates that "where in any case	 the court could have dealt with: (a) an accused person under section 360 or under the provisions of the (Act XX of 1958) or; (b) a youthful offender under the (Act LX of 1960) or any other law for the time being in force for the treatment	 training or rehabilitation of youthful offenders	 but has not done so	 it shall record in its judgment	 the special reasons for not having done so." Thus	 under the Criminal Procedure Code	 1973	 recourse to the provisions of section 360 is a must. In a trial against four persons charged by the Police with offences under sections 302	 324	 323 IPC	 including constructive liability under section 34	 two were	 acquitted by the trial court and two were convicted. The appellant was sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for one year and a fine of Rs. 200/ for causing simple injury to one Arjan Singh. He was held vicariously guilty under sections 324/34 IPC and awarded two years rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs. 1000/ . In addition he was convicted under section 323 IPC	 for causing hurt to the daughter of the deceased and on this count punished with R.I. for one year together with a fine of Rs. 200/ . Releasing the appellant on probation	 the Court ^ HELD: 1. Enacted law is guilty of inaction; because its obscure presence on the statute book escapes the vigilance of the Bar. Where even the Court ignores what is vital to the little man the guarantee of sentencing legality becomes a casualty. [1135H	 1136A] 1135 2. To jail an accused is mechanical farewell to the finer sentencing sensitivity of the Judge of salvaging a redeemable man by non institutionalised treatment. If the judge has before him a complete and accurate pre sentence investigation report which sets forth the conditions	 circumstances	 background	 and surrounding of the accused and the circumstances underlying the offence which has been committed	 the judge could then impose sentence with greater assurance that he has adopted the proper course. The purpose of section 360 of the Code is precisely this and the goal of section 235(2) is just this. [1138H	 1140B C] 3. Sentencing legality is violated when the judge shirks. And the Bar is often alien to correctional alternatives and concentrates its ammunition on culpability and extenuatory scaling down of imprisonment. [1189F] 4. Calling pre sentence investigation reports	 bestowal of intelligent care on the choice between institutional and non institutional disposition like probation	 conditional release and such community methods must form part of innovative sentences. But this should be based on careful study of the convict and his potentiality for reform; not guess work	 nor insensitive assessments. [1137B E] Williams vs New York	 ; 	 249; quoted with approval.