Concurrent sentences under CrPC cannot be sought later through an independent application after final conviction proceedings conclude.

An independent application under Sections 482 and 427 CrPC seeking concurrency of sentences was held not maintainable after the convictions, appeals and special leave petitions had attained finality. Section 427 applies when a person already undergoing imprisonment is later sentenced on a subsequent conviction, and no concurrency direction had been sought or granted in the original trials or appeals. The Court held that inherent powers under Section 482 cannot be used to create such relief after final disposal of the criminal proceedings. The request for the two sentences to run concurrently was therefore rejected.

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Issues: Whether an application under Sections 482 and 427 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, filed after the dismissal of the appeals and special leave petitions, could be maintained to direct that the sentences in two separate criminal cases run concurrently.

Analysis: Section 427 of the Code contemplates a direction for concurrency at the stage when a person already undergoing imprisonment is sentenced on a subsequent conviction. The provision was not invoked in the original trials or appeals, and no direction regarding concurrency had been made by the trial court or the appellate court. A separate and independent proceeding seeking to invoke Section 427 after the criminal proceedings had attained finality was not maintainable. Section 482 of the Code could not be used to grant such relief in the absence of prior exercise of jurisdiction in the original proceedings.

Conclusion: The application was not maintainable and the request for directing the sentences to run concurrently was rejected, against the appellant.

Ratio Decidendi: A direction under Section 427 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 cannot be obtained by a subsequent independent application after the original conviction proceedings have concluded, and inherent powers under Section 482 cannot be used to create such relief.

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