Summarize the following court judgment. Criminal Appeal No. 195 of 1977. Appeal by Special Leave from the Judgment and Order dated the 25 10 1976 of the Andhra Pradesh High Court in Crl. R.	 Case No. 660 of 1970 and Crl. R.P. No. 646 of 1976. 155 G. Yenkatrama Sastry and G. Narasinhulu for the Appellant. P. Parwneswara Rao and G. Narayana Rao for Respondent. The Judgment of the Court was delivered by KRISHNA IYER	 J. Some basic issues bearing on prescription of punishments arise for judicial investigation in this criminal appeal where leave has been limited to tailoring the sentence by appellate review to fit the gravity of the delinquency and the redemption of the deviant. The facts leading up to the conviction may need brief narration. The appellant	 along with another accused	 deceived several desperate unemployed young men	 received various sums of Rs. 1200/ by false pretences that they would secure jobs for them through politically influential friends and other make believe representations. The offence of cheating under section 420 IPC was made out and convic tion of both the accused followed. The 1st accused (appellant before us) is a young man around 28 years old and works as a Junior Assistant in the Planning and Financial Department of the Andhra Pradesh Secretariat and the other accused is his friend who personated as a State Port Officer. Before the trial court	 there was a formal	 almost pharisaic	 fulfilment 'of the pre sentencing provision in section The opportunity contemplated in the sub section has a penological significance of far reaching import	 which has been lost on the trial Magistrate. For he disposed of this benignant obligation by a brief ritual : "I made of the accused that they were found guilty under section 420 IPC and the punishment contemplated thereof. " Reform of the black letter law is a time lagging process. But judicial metabolism is sometimes slower to assimilate the spiritual substance of creative ideas finding their way into the statute book. This may explain why the appellate courts fell in line with the Magistrate 's mechanical approach and confirmed the condign punishment of 3 years ' rigorous imprisonment. At all the three tiers the focus was on the serious nature of the crime (cheating of young men by a government servant and his blackguardly companion) and no ray of light on the 'criminal ' or on the pertinent variety of social facts	 surrounding him penetrated the forensic mentation. The humane art of sentencing remains a retarded child of the Indian criminal system. Now we enter the area of punitive treatment of criminals	 assuming that the guilt has been brought home. Certain elemental factors are 'significant strands of criminological thought. Since the whole territory of punishment in its modem setting is virtually Virgin so far as our country is concerned	 we may as well go into the subject in some incisive depth for the guidance of the subordinate judi ciary. The subject of study takes us to our cultural heritage that there is divinity in every man which has been translated into the 11 722SCI/77	 156 constitutional essence of the dignity and worth of the human person. We take the liberty of making an Indian approach and then strike a cosmic note. Progressive criminologists across the world will agree that the Gandhian diagnosis of offenders at patients and his conception of prisons as hospitals mental and moral is the key to the pathology of delinquency and the therapeutic role of 'punishment ' The whole man is a healthy man and every man is born good. Criminality is a curable deviance. The morality of the law may vary	 but is real. The basic goodness of all human beings is a spiritual axiom	 a fall out of the advaita of cosmic creation and the spring of correctional thought in criminology. If every saint has a past	 every sinner has a future	 and it is the role of law to remind both of this. The Indian legal genius of old has made a healthy contribution to the world treasury of criminology. The drawback of our criminal process is that often they are built on the bricks of impressionist opinions and dated values	 ignoring empirical studies and deeper researches. India	 like every other country	 has its own crime complex and dilemma of punishment. Solutions to tangled social issues do not come like the crack of down but are the product of research and study	 oriented on the founding faiths of society and driving towards that transformation which is the goal of free India. Man is subject to more stresses and strains in this age than ever before	 and a new class of crimes arising from restlessness of the spirit and frustration of ambitions has erupted. White collar crime	 with which we are concerned here	 belongs to this disease of man 's inside. If the psychic perspective and the spiritual insight we have tried to project is valid	 the police billy and the prison drill cannot 'minister to a mind diseased nor tone down the tension	 release the repression	 unbend the perversion	 each of which shows up as debased deviance	 violent vice and behavioral turpitude. It is a truism	 often forgotten in the hidden vendetta in human bosoms	 that barbarity breeds barbarity	 and injury recoils as injury	 so that if hearing the mentally or morally maimed or malformed man (found guilty) is the goal	 awakening the inner being	 more than torturing through exterior compulsions	 holds out better curative hopes. An aside. A holistic view of sentencing and a finer perception of the effect of imprisonment give	 short shrift to draconian severity as self defeating and fillips meditational relaxation	 psychic medication and like exercises as apt to be more rewarding. Therefore	 the emphasis has to be as much on man as on the system	 on the inner imbalance as on the outer tensions. Perhaps the time has come for Indian criminologists to rely more on Patanjali sutra as a scientific curative for crimogenic factors than on the blind jail term set out in the Penal Code and that may be why western researchers are now seeking Indian yogic ways of normalising the individual and the group. 157 Western jurisdiction and 'sociologists	 from their own angle have struck a like note. Sir Samual Romilly	 critical of the brutal penalties in the then Britain	 said in 1817 : "The laws of England are written in blood". Alfieri has suggested : 'society prepares the crime	 the criminal commits it. George Micodotis	 Director of Criminological Research Centre	 Athens	 Greece	 maintains that 'Crime is the result of the lack of the right kind of education. ' It is thus plain that crime is a pathological aberration	 that the criminal can ordinarily be redeemed	 that the State has to rehabilitate rather than avenge. The sub culture that leads to anti social behaviour has to be countered not by undue cruelty but by re culturisation. Therefore	 the focus of interest in penology is the individual	 and goal is salvaging him for society. The infliction of harsh and savage punishment is thus a relic of past and regressive times. The human today views sentencing as a process of reshaping a person who has deteriorated into criminality and the modern community has a primary stake in the rehabilitation of the offender as a means of social defense. We	 therefore consider a therapeutic	 rather than an in 'terrorem ' outlook	 should prevail in our criminal courts	 since brutal incarceration of the person merely produces laceration of his mind. In the words of George Bernard Shaw : 'If you are to punish a man retributively	 you must injure him. If you are to reform him	 you must improve him and	 men are not improved by injuries '. We may permit ourselves the liberty to quote from Judge Sir Jeoffrey Streatfield : 'If you are going to have anything to do with the criminal courts	 you should see for yourself the conditions under which prisoners serve their sentences. ' In the same strain a British Buddhist Christian Judge	 speaking to a BBC reporter underscored the role of compassion : "Circuit Judge Christmas Humphreys told the BBC reporter recently that a judge looks 'at the man in the dock in a different way : not just a criminal to be punished	 but a fellow human being	 another form of life who is also a form of the same one life as oneself. ' In the context of karuna and punishment for karma the same Judge said : 'The two things are not incompatible. You do punish him for what he did	 but you bring in a quality of what is sometimes called mercy	 rather than an emotional hate against the man for doing something harmful. You feel with him; that is what compassion means. " The Listener	 November 25	 1976	 p. (692) Incidentally	 we may glance at the prison system which leaves much to be desired in the sense of humanizing and reforming the man we call criminal. Jimmy Carter	 currently President of the United States and not a law man	 made certain observations in his Law Day Speech to the University of Georgia while he was Governor of that State	 which bear quotation : "In our prisons	 which in the past have been a disgrace to Georgia	 we 've tried to make substantive changes in the 158 quality of those who administer them and to put a new realm of understanding and hope and compassion into the administration of that portion of the system of justice. Ninety five percent of those who are presently incarcerated in prisons will be returned to be our neighbors. And now the thrust of the entire program	 as initiated under Ellis Mac Dougall and now continued under Dr. Ault	 is to try to discern in the soul of each convicted and sentenced person	 redeeming features that can be enhanced. We plan a career for that person to be pursued while he is in prison. I believe that the early data that we have on recidivism rates indicates the efficacy of what we 've done." In the light of what we propose to do	 in disposing of this appeal	 another observation of Jimmy Carter in the course of the same speech is relevant: "Well	 I don 't know the theory of law	 but there is one other point I want to make	 just for your own consideration. I think we 've made great progress in the Pardons and Paroles Board since I 've been in Office and since we 've reorganized the Government. We have five very enlightened people there now. And on occasion they go out to the prison system to interview the inmates	 to decide whether or not they are worthy to be released after they serve one third of their sentence. I think most jurors and most judges feel that when they give the sentence	 they know that after a third of the sentence has gone by	 they will be eligible for careful consideration. Just think for a moment about your own son or your own father or your own daughter being in prison	 having served seven years of a lifetime term and being considered for a release. Don 't 'you think that they ought to be examined and that the pardons and Paroles Board ought to look them in the eye an d ask them a question and if they are turned down	 ought to give them some substantive reason why they 'are not released and what they can do to correct their defects We have dealt 'with the subject sufficienty to set the humanitarian tone that must inform the sentencing judge	 the Karuna that must line his verdict. The same compassionate outlook is reflected in some of the decision of this Court and of the High Courts indicating the distance between current penal strategy and Hammurabi 's Code	 which	 in about 1975 B.C.	 insited 'on an eye for an eye	 a tooth for a tooth '. Referring to the earlier Criminal Procedure Code and its deficiency in regard to sentencing	 this Court observed in Telani (AIR 1974 SC 228	 236) "Finally comes the post conviction stage where the current criminal system is weakest. The Court 's approach has at once to be socially informed and personalised. Unfortunately	 the meaningful collection and presentation of 159 the penological facts bearing on the background of the individual	 the dimension of damage	 the social milieu and what not these are not provided in the Code and we have to make intelligent hunches on the basis of materials adduced to prove guilt. In this unsatisfactory situation which needs legislative remedying we go by certain broad features." Similarly	 in Jagmohan Singh. ; :1973 SCR 541	560 this Court observed : "The sentence follows the conviction	 and it is true that no formal procedure for producing evidence with reference to the sentence is specifically provided. The reason is that relevant facts and circumstances impinging on the nature and circumstances of the crime are already before the Court Where counsel addresses the court with regard to the charac ter and standing of the accused	 they are duly considered by the Court unless there is something in the evidence itself which belies him or the Public Prosecutor for the State challenges the facts. If the matter is relevant and is essential to be considered	 there is nothing in the Or. P. C. which prevents additional evidence being taken. It must however be stated that it is not the experience of criminal courts in India that the accused with a view to obtaining a reduced sentence ever offers to call additional evidence. However	 it is necessary to emphasize that the Court is broadly concerned with the facts and circumstances whether aggravating or mitigating	 which are connected with the particular crime under enquiry. All such facts and circumstances are capable of being proved in accordance with the provisions of the Indian Evidence Act in a trial regulated by the Cr. P.C. The trial thus does not come to an end until all the relevant facts are proved and the counsel on both sides have an opportunity to address the court. . The Kerala High Court	 in Shiva Prasad had also something useful to say in this regard : "Criminal trial in our country is largely devoted only to finding out whether the man in the dock is guilty. It is a major deficiency in the Indian system of criminal trials that the complex but important sentencing factors are not given sufficient emphasis and materials are not presented before the court to help it for a correct judgment in the proper personalised	 punitive treatment suited to the offender and the crime. . Likewise	 Shri Justice Dua (as lie then was) of the Punjab High Court had indicated the guidelines on the application of the rehabilitative theory in Lekharaj & Ors vs State (AIR 1960 Punjab 482) where the learned Judge had pointed out the relevance of the offender 's circumstances and social milieu	 apart 160 from the daring and reprehensible nature of the offence. The Law Commission of India (in 47th Report) has summed up the components of a proper sentence : "A proper sentence is a composite of many factors	 including the nature of the offence	 the circumstances extenuating or aggravating of the offence	 the prior criminal record	 if any	 of the offender	 the age of the offender	 the professional and social record of the offender	 the background of the offender with reference to education. home life	 sobriety and social adjustment	 the emotional and mental condition of the offender	 the prospect for the rehabilitation of the offender	 the possibility of a return of the offender to normal life in the community	 the possibility of treatment or of training of the	 offender	 tie possibility that the sentence may serve as a deterrent to crime by this offender	 or by others	 and the present community need	 if any for such a deterrent in respect to the particular type of offence involved." (para 7.44) All that we have said upto now emphasizes the need on the part of the judges to see that sentencing ceases to be downgraded to Cinderella status. The new Criminal Procedure Code	 1973 incorporates some of these ideas and gives an opportunity in section 248(2) to both parties to bring to the notice of the court facts and circumstances which win help personalize the sentence from a reformative angle. This Court	 in Santa Singh 	 has emphasized how fundamental it is to put such provision to dynamic judicial use	 while dealing with the analogous provisions in section 235(2) "This new provision in section 235(2) is in consonance with the modern trends in penology and sentencing procedures. There was no such provision in the old Code	. It 'was realised that sentencing is an important stage in the process of administration of criminal justice as important as the adjudication of guilt and it should not be con signed to a Subsidiary position as if it were a matter of not much consequence. It should be a matter of some anxiety to the court to impose an appropriate punishment on the criminal and sentencing should	 therefore	 receive serious attention of the Court. (p. 194.). Modern penology regards crime and criminal as equally material when the right sentence has to be picked out. It turns the focus not only on the crime	 but also on the criminal and seeks to personalise the punishment so that the reformist component is as much operative as the deterrent element. It is necessary for this purpose that facts of a social and personal nature	 sometimes altogether irrelevant if not injurious	 at the stage of fixing the guilt	 may have to be brought to the notice of the court when the actual sen tence is determined. (p. 195). 161 A proper sentence is the amalgam of many factors such as the nature of the offence	 the circumstances extenuating or aggravating of the offence	 the prior criminal record	 if any	 of the offender	 the age of the offender	 the record of the offender as to employment	 the background of the offender with reference to education	 home life	 sobriety and social adjustment	 the emotional and mental condition of the offender	 the prospects for the rehabilitation of the offender	 the possibility of return of the offender to normal life in the community	 the possibility of treatment or training of the offender	 the possibility that the sentence may serve as a deterrent to crime by the offender or by others and the current community need	 if any	 for such a deterrent in respect to the particular type of offence. These factors have to be taken into account by the Court in deciding upon the appropriate sentence. (p. 195). The hearing contemplated by section 235(2) is not confined merely to hearing oral submissions	 but it is also intended to give an opportunity to the prosecution and the ac cused to place before the court facts and material relating to various factors ' bearing on the question of sentence and if they are contested by other side	 then to produce evidence for the purpose of establishing the same. Of course	 care would have to be taken by the court to see that this hearing on the question of sentence is not abused and turned into an instrument for unduly protracting the proceedings. The claim of due and proper hearing would have to be harmonised with the requirement of expeditious disposal of proceedings." (p. 196). It will thus be seen that there is a great discretion vested in the Judge	 especially when pluralistic factors 	 enter his calculations Even so	 the judge must exercise this discretionary power	 drawing his inspiration from the humanitarian spirit of the law	 and living down the traditional precedents which have winked at the personality of the crime doer and been swept away by the features of the crime. What is dated has to be discarded. What is current has to	 be incorporated. Therefore innovation	 in all conscience	 is in the field of judicial discretion. Unfortunately	 the Indian Penal Code still lingers in the somewhat compartmentalised system of punishment viz. imprisonment simple or rigorous	 fine and	 of course	 capital sentence. There is a wide range of choice and flexible treatment which must be available with the judge if he is to fulfil his tryst with cruing the criminal in a hospital setting. Maybe in an appropriate case actual hospital treatment may have to be prescribed as part of the sentence. In another case	 liberal parole may have to be suggested and	 yet in a third category	 engaging in certain types of occupation or even going through meditational drills or other courses may be part of the sentencing prescription. The perspective having changed	 the legal strategies and judicial resources	 in their variety	 also have to change. Rule 162 of thumb sentences of rigorous imprisonment or other are too insensitive to the highly delicate and subtle operation expected of a sentencing judge. Release on probation	 conditional sentences	 visits to healing centres	 are all on the cards. We do not wish to be exhaustive. Indeed	 we cannot be. Sentencing justice is a facet of social justice	 even as redemption of a crime doer is an aspect of restoration of a whole personality. Till the new Code recognised statutorily that punishment required considerations beyond the nature of the crime and circumstances surrounding the crime and provided a second stage for bringing in such additional materials	 the Indian courts had	 by and large	 assigned an obsolescent backseat to the sophisticated judgment on sentencing. Now this judicial skill has to come of age. The sentencing stance of the court has been outlined by us and the next question is what 'hospitalization ' techniques will best serve and sentencee	 having due regard to his just deserts	 blending a feeling for a man behind the crime	 defence of society by a deterrent component and a scientific therapeutic attitude at once correctional and realistic. The available resources for achieving these ends within the prison campus also has to be considered in this context. Noticing the scant regard paid by the courts below to the soul of section 248 (2) of the Code and compelled to gather information having sentencing relevancy	 we permitted counsel on both sides in the present appeal to file affidavits and other materials to help the Court make a judicious choice of the appropriate 'penal ' treatment. Both sides have filed affidavits which disclose some facts pertinent to the project. We have earlier mentioned that the social abhorrence of the crime is an input	 since the emphatic denunciation of a crime by the community must be reflected in the punishment. From this angle we agree with the trial court that unconscionable exploitation of unfortunately unemployed 'young men by heartless deception	 compounded by pretension to political influence	 calls for punitive severity to serve as deterrent. The crime here is doubly bad and throws light on how gullible young men part with hard money in the hope that political influence	 indirectly purchased through money	 can secure jobs obliquely. But then the victims of the crime must be commiserated with and in such white collar offences it is proper to insist upon reparation of the victims	 apart from any other sentence. In the present case	 four young men have been wheedled out of their little for tunes by two convicts and so	 to drive home a sense of moral responsibility to repair the injury inflicted	 we think it right to direct the appellant to pay a fine of Rs. 1200/ which will be made over by the trial court to P.W. 1 (whose case alone is the subject of the prosecution) under section 357 of the Code. That is to say	 a fine of Rs. 1200/is imposed will be 	paid over to the aforesaid P.W.1. What are the other circumstances which we may look into ? The appellant is a young man of 28 years. He has a degree in Bachelor of Oriental Languages and another in Commerce	 which suggests that he may respond to new cultural impact. He was working as a Junior 163 Assistant in the Government Secretariat and has now lost the post consequent on the conviction. This is a hard lesson in life. The socioeconomic circumstances of the man deserve to be noticed. His parents are old and financially weak	 since they and the appellant '& sisters and younger brother are his dependents. The younger brother also is unemployed. These factors suggest that the economic blow	 if the appellant is imprisoned for long	 will be upon his brothe r at College and the other members of his family. Extenuation is implicit in this fact. He prays for release on probation or under section 360 of the Code because he has no blemish by way of previous crime or bad official record. Having regard to his age (not immature) and the deliberate plan behind the crime operated in partnership upon four perhaps more persons	 we reject his request as over ambitious. At the same time	 a contrite convict	 yet in his twenties	 may deserve clement treatment. A just reduction of the sentence is justified and we think that incarceration for 18 months may be adequate. But this long period has to be converted into a spell of healing spent in an intensive care ward of the penitentiary	 if we may say so figuratively. How can this be achieved ? First	 by congenial work which gives job satisfaction not jail frustration	 nor further criminalisation. We therefore direct the State Government to see that within the framework of the Jail Rules	 the appellant is assigned work not of a monotonous	 mechanical	 degrading type	 but of a mental	 intellectual	 or like type mixed with a little manual labour(1). This will ensure that the prisoner does work more or less of the kind he is used to. The jail	 certainly	 must be able to find this kind of work for him	 even on its own administrative side under proper safeguards though. Shri PP Rao	 appearing for the State		 assures us	 that in keeping with this constructive suggestion of the Court the jail authorities will assign to the appellant congenial work of a mental cum manual type and promote him to an officer warder 's position if his conduct is good. We have also made the suggestion that the appellant must be paid a reasonable faction of remuneration by way of wages for the work done	 since unpaid work is bonded labour and humiliating. This amount may be remitted to his father once in three months Shri Rao	 on behalf of the State Government	 has assured the Court that immediate consideration will be given to this idea by the State Government and the jail authorities. We also think that the appellant has slipped into crime for want of moral fibre. If competent Jail Visitors could organise for him processes whichwill instill into him a sense of ethics it may help him become a better man. Self expression and self realisation have a curative effect. Therefore	 any sports and games	 artistic activity (1) Says Gandhiji in Harijan : Feb. 6	 1947 "Intellectual work is important and has an undoubted place in the scheme of life. But what I insist on is the necessity of physical labour. No man	 I claim	 ought to be free from that obligation; it will serve to improve even the quality of his intellectual output		. 164 and/or meditational course	 may also reform. We strongly recommend that the appellant be given such opportunities by the jail authorities as will stimulate his creativity and sensitivity. In this connection we may even refer to proven advantages of kindling creative intelligence and normalising inner imbalance reportedly accomplished by Transcendental Meditation (TM) propagated by Maharshi Mahesh Yogi in many countries in the west. Research projects conducted in various countries bring out that people practising such or like courses change their social behaviour and	 reduce their crime proneness. We do not prescribe anything definite but indicate what the prison doctors may hopefully consider. While it is beyond us to say whether the present facilities inside the Central Prison	 Hyderabad	 make it feasible for the appellant to enjoy these benefits and thereby improve his inner being	 we strongly feel that the humanitarian winds must blow into the prison barricades. More than this is expected in this decade	 when jail reforms	 from abolition of convict 's costume and conscript labour to restoration of basic companionship and atmosphere of self respect and fraternal touch	 are on the urgent agenda of the nation. Our prisons should be correctional houses	 not cruel iron aching the soul We have given thought to another humanising strategy	 viz.	 a guarded parole release every three months for at least a week	 punctuating the total prison term. We direct the State Government to extend this parole facility to the appellant	 Jail Rules permitting	 and the appellant submitting to conditions of discipline and initiation into an uplifting exercise during the parole interval. We further direct the Advisory Board of the	 Person periodically to check whether the appellant is making progress and the Jail authorities are helping in the process and implementing the prescription hereinabove given. Indeed	 the direction of prison reform is not towards dehumanization but dehumanization	 not maim and mayhem and vulgar callousness but man making experiments designed to restore the	 dignity of the individual and the worth of the human person. This majuscule strategy involves orientation courses for the prison personnel. The State will not hesitate	 we expect	 to respect the personality in each convict	 in the spirit of the Preamble to the Constitution and will not permit the colonial hangover of putting people 'behind the bars ' and then forget about them. This nation cannot and	 if it remembers its incarcerated leaders and freedom fighters will not but revolutionize the conditions inside that grim little world. We make these persistent observations only to drive home the imperative of Freedom that its deprivation	 by the State	 is validated only by a plan to make the sentencee more worthy of that birthright. There is a spiritual dimension to the first page of our Constitution which. projects into penology. Indian courts may draw inspiration from Patanjali sutra even as they derive punitive patterns from the Penal Code (most of Indian meditational therapy is based on the sutras of Patanjali). Before we close this judgment we wish to dispel a possible misapprehension about the fine we are imposing upon the cheat although we have proceeded on the footing of his family being relatively indigent. The further direction for making over the fine to the deceivees also needs a small explanation. 165 There is nothing in principle	 as Lord Parker pointed out in R. V. King (1970 2 AR. E. R. 248) to prevent a court from imposing a fine even when imposing a suspended sentence of imprisonment. 'Indeed	 in many cases it is quite a good thing to impose a fine which adds a sting of course	 the fine should not be altogether beyond the sentences means. As to whether it is wrong to make a sort of compensation order in a case of a convicted person without much means	 again	 Lord Parker in R. V. Ironfield (1971 1 All. E. R. 202) has observed "If a man takes someone else 's property or goods	 he is liable in Law to make restitution	 or pay compensation. A victim. need not be put to the additional trouble and expense of independent proceedings	 and certainly cannot be required to forego his rights in order to facilitate the rehabilitation of the man who has despoiled him. " Counsel for the appellant has repeated that his client is taking examination in Accountancy an indication of this anxiety to improve himself. We have no doubt that the jail authorities will afford facilities to the appellant to do his last minutes studies and take the examination and	 for that purpose	 allow him to go to any library and the examination hall under proper conditions of security. The affidavit on behalf of the State indicates that a tendency to	 turn a new page is discernible in the appellant and this has to be strengthened imaginatively by the Jail Superintendent	 if need be	 by affording him opportunity for initiation into Transcendental Meditation courses or like exercises provided the appellant shows an appetite in that direction and facilities are available in Hyderabad City. Shri P. P. Rao	 for the State	 has represented that the Andhra Pradesh Government is processing rules for payment of wages to prisoners who work but that it may take a few months more for finalisation. It is a little surprising that at least two decades or more have been spent in this country after Freedom discussing active programmes of correction although in some States	 for long years the wage system has been in vogue. Andhra Pradesh State will rise to this civilized norm and	 when it finalises rules	 will take care to see that the wages rates are reasonable and not trivial and that retrospective effect will be given to see that at least from October 2	 1976 (the birthday of the Father of the Nation) effect is given to the wage policy. Shri Sastry	 for the appellant	 assured the Court that he had been instructed to state that Rs. 1200/ would be paid right away out of the fine	 imposed. We allow the appeal in humanist part	 as outlined above	 while affirming the conviction. More concretely	 we direct that (a) the sentence shall be reduced to 18 (eighteen) months	 less the period already undergone; (b) our directions	 above mentioned	 regarding parole and assignment of suitable work and payment of wages in jail shall be complied with; and (c) the appellant shall pay a fine of 166 Rs. 1200/ . We appreciate the services of counsel Shri P. P. Rao in disposing of this appeal justly. We may also mention that Shri G. V. R.Sastry appearing for the appellant has also helped the court towards the same en P.H.P. Appeal allowed.

The appellant along with another accused deceived several desperate unemployed youngmen	 received various sums of Rs. 1200 by false pretences that they would secure jobs for them through politically influential friends and other make believe representations. The offence of cheating under a. 420 was made out and all the 3 courts concurrently convicted both the accused. The appellant was sentenced to 3 years rigorous imprisonment. The appellant is an unemployed youngman around 28 years old and used to work as a Junior Assistant in the Andhra Pradesh Secretariat. This Court granted special leave limited to the question of sentence. Allowing the appeal partly	 HELD : (1) The pre sentencing provision in section 248(2) Cr. P. C. has a penological significance of far reaching import which has been lost on the trial magistrate. Reform of the black letter law is a time lagging process. At an the three tiers the focus was on the serious nature of the crime and no ray of light on the criminal or on the pertinent variety of social facts surrounding him penetrated the forensic mentation. [153 D	 E] (2)Since the whole territory of punishment in its modern setting is virtually virgin so far as our country is concerned	 the court went into the subject in some incisive depth for the guidance of the subordinate judiciary. [155 G] (3)Progressive criminologists in the world agree that the Gandhian diagnosis of offenders as patients and his conception of prisons as hospitals mental and moral is the key to the pathology of delinquency and the therapeutic role of punishment. The whole man is a healthy man and every man is born good. Criminality is a curable deviance. If every saint has a past every sinner has a future and it is the role of law to remind both of this. [155 B C] (4)Man is subject to more stresses and strains in this age than ever before and a new class of crimes arising from restlessness of the spirit and frustration of ambitions has erupted. White collar crime	 as in the present case	 belong% to this disease of man 's inside. Barbarity and injury recoils as injury so that if healing the mentally or morally maimed or malformed man is the goal	 awakening the inner being more than torturing through exterior compulsions	 holds out better curative hopes. The infliction of harsh and savage punishment is thus a relic of past and regressive times. Today sentencing should be a process of re shaping a person who has deteriorated into criminality and the modern community has a primary stake in the rehabilitation of the offender as a means of social defence. Therefore	 a therapeutic	 rather than a terrors outlook should prevail in our criminal courts. [156 E	 H	 157 C D] Tejani AIR 1974 S C 228	 236; Jagmohan Singh ; and Santa Singh 	 referred to. (5)There is a great discretion vested in the judge while imposing sentence. The Judge must exercise this discretionary power	 draw his inspiration from the humanitarian spirit of the law living down the traditional precedents which have winked at the personality of the crime doer and been swept away by the features of the crime. Unfortunately	 the Indian Penal Code still lingers in the somewhat compartmentalised system of punishment viz.	 imprisonment	 154 simple or rigorous	 fine and	 of course	 capital sentence. There is a wide range of choice and flexible treatment which must be available with the Judge if he is to fulfil his tryst with curing the criminal in a hospital setting. Rule of thumb sentences of rigorous imprisonment or other are too insensitive to the highly delicate and subtle operation expected of a sentencing judge. Release on probation	 conditional sentences	 visits to healing centres	 are all on the cards. [161 E H 162 A] (6)In the present case the crime is doubly bad and throws light on how gullible youngmen part with hard earned money in the hope that political influence indirectly purchased through money can secure jobs obliquely. But the victims of the crime must be commiserated with and in such white Collar offences it is proper to insist upon reparation of the victims apart from any other sentence. The Court	 therefore	 directed the appellant to pay a fine of Rs. 1200/ which was directed to be made over by the Trial Court to P.W. 1 who was victim in the present case. [162 E FG] (7)The appellant is a youngman of 28 years. He has a degree in Oriental Languages and another in Commerce. He was working as a Junior Assistant in the Government Secretariat and has now lost the post consequent on the conviction. This is a hard lesson in life. The socioeconomic circumstances of the man deserve notice. His parents are old and financially weak. His parents	 sisters and younger brothers are his dependents. The younger brother is also unemployed. These factors suggest that the economic blow	 if the appellant is imprisoned for long	 will be upon his brother at College and other members of his family. He had not committed any previous crime. The court rejected the prayer of the appellant for release on probation on the ground that the appellant had a deliberate plan behind the crime operated in partnership upon 4 or more persons and that his age is such that he cannot be called immature	 The court	 however	 reduced the sentence to 18 months. The court also recommended that (a) he should not be given work of a monotonous	 mechanical	 degrading type	 but of a mental	 intellectual or like type mixed with a little manual labour. This would ensure that the person does work more or less of the kind he used to; (b) the appellant must be paid a reasonable fraction of remuneration by way of wages for the work done	 as unpaid work is bonded labour and humiliating; (c) the appellant should be allowed to participate in sports and games	 and take to artistic activity and/or meditational course. He should be given such opportunities by the Jail authorities as would stimulate his creativity and sensitivity. (d) a guarded parole release every 3 months for at least a week. [162 H	 163 A E] Humanitarian winds must blow into the prison barricades. Jail reforms from abolition of convict 's costume and conscript labour to restoration and fraternal touch	 are on the urgent agenda of the nation. Our prisons should be correctional houses	 and not cruel iron aching the soul. [164 C] The court observed that the State should not hesitate to respect the personality in each convict in the spirit of the preamble to the Constitution and not to permit the colonial hangover of putting people behind the bars and then forget about them. [164 F] R. vs King and R. vs Ironfield 	 referred to.