TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2001 (5) TMI 936
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....ting circumstance in view of our findings that the murders committed by him were most cruel, heinous and dastardly. We have no doubt that the present case is the rarest of the rare requiring the maximum penalty, imposable under law." Not satisfied with the murder of human beings, the petitioner has now tried to scuttle the process of law and@@ thwart the course of Justice by resort to having recourse of@@seeking review of sentence on imaginative and concocted grounds. He has contended that as he was a juvenile within the meaning of Section 2(h) of the Juvenile Justice Act, he could not be sentenced to any imprisonment much less the death sentence. In support of his contentions the learned counsel appearing for the petitioner has relied upon a host of authorities, wherein keeping in view the age of the accused and treating them as child, this Court had passed orders for setting those accused persons at liberty. After issue of notice, a two-judge Bench of this Court held that the question of conviction of the petitioner under Section 302 of the IPC cannot be re-opened. Taking note of the contention of the learned counsel for the petitioner that the accused was juvenile at the a....
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....highest court indicating the circumstances in which it could rectify its order the courts culled out such power to avoid abuse of process or miscarriage of justice. In Raja Prithwi Chand Law Choudhury v. Sukhraj Rai [AIR 1941 FC 1] the Court observed that even though no rules had been framed permitting the highest Court to review its order yet it was available on the limited and narrow ground developed by the Privy Council and the House of Lords. The Court approved the principle laid down by the Privy Council in Rajunder Narain Rae v. Bijai Govind Singh (1836) 1 Moo PC 117 that an order made by the Court was final and could not be altered: "...nevertheless, if by misprision in embodying the judgments, by errors have been introduced, these Courts possess, by Common Law, the same power which the Courts of record and statute have of rectifying the mistakes which have crept in.... The House of Lords exercises a similar power of rectifying mistakes made in drawing up its own judgments, and this Court must possess the same authority. The Lords have however gone a step further, and have corrected mistakes intro....
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....dered the powers of this Court under Article 137 of the Constitution read with Order 47 Rule 1 CPC and Order 40 Rule 1 of the Supreme Court Rules and held: "It is well settled that a party is not entitled to seek a review of a judgment delivered by this Court merely for the purpose of a rehearing and a fresh decision of the case. The normal principle is that a judgment pronounced by the Court is final, and departure from that principle is justified only when circumstances of a substantial and compelling character make it necessary to do so. Sajjan Singh v. State of Rajasthan, (1965) 1 SCR 933 at p.948. For instance, if the attention of the Court is not drawn to a material statutory provision during the original hearing. G.L. Gupta v. D.N. Mehta, (1971) 3 SCR 748 at p.760. The Court may also reopen its judgment if a manifest wrong has been done and it is necessary to pass an order to do full and effective justice. ON Mohindroo v. Dist. Judge, Delhi, (1971) 2 SCR 11 at p.27. Power to review its judgments has been conferred on the Supreme Court by Art.137 of the Constitution, and that power is subject to the provisi....
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....Bench did not matter has not been accepted in this country. In this country there is a hierarchy within the Court itself where larger Benches overrule smaller Benches. This practice followed by the Court was declared to have been crystalised as a rule of law. Reference in that behalf was made to the judgments in Javed Ahmed Abdul Hamid Pawala v. State of Maharashtra [1985 (2) SCR 8], State of Orissa v. Titaghur Paper Mills [AIR 1985 SC 1293], Union of India v. Godfrey Philips India Ltd. [1985 Supp. (3) SCR 123. In that case the Bench comprising seven judges was called upon to decide as to whether the directions given by the Bench of this Court comprising five judges in the case of R.S. Nayak v. A.R. Antulay [AIR 1984 SC 684] were legally proper or not and whether the action and the trial proceedings pursuant to those directions were legal and valid. In that behalf reference was made to the hierarchy of Benches and practice prevalent in the country. It was observed that Court was not debarred from reopening the question of giving proper directions and correcting the error in appeal if the direction issued in the earlier case on 16th February, 1984 were found to be violative of limit....
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....contended that the petitioner could not have been tried by a court other than the juvenile court as per Sections 23 and 24 of the Juvenile Justice Act, 1986 (hereinafter referred to as "the Act"). As the trial was concededly not conducted by a juvenile court, the whole proceedings were liable to be quashed. It is further contended that the trial court wrongly held the petitioner to be more than 20 years of age and the High Court erred in not deciding the question of age despite concession made by the counsel appearing for the petitioner. It is submitted that the counsel of the accused could not have sacrificed the interest of the accused and should have insisted for a finding from the court regarding his being a child or a juvenile. It is further submitted that the evidence on record requires re-examination as allegedly there are numerous inconsistencies and contradictions, the benefit of which is to go to the accused. Though not pleaded, yet the learned counsel argued that as the judgment was pronounced on the same day when the conviction was recorded, the mandate of Section 235 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (hereinafter referred to as "the Code") stood violated. The ground....
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....ans a juvenile who has been found to have committed an offence. Section 5 of the Act authorizes the State government for constitution of juvenile courts for exercising the powers and discharging the duties conferred on such courts in relation to delinquent juvenile under the Act. Section 8 of the Act provides that when any Magistrate not empowered to exercise the power of a Board or a Juvenile Court under this Act is of the opinion that a person brought before him under any of the provisions of the Act is a juvenile, he shall record such opinion and forward the juvenile and the record of the proceeding to the competent authority having jurisdiction over the proceeding. Such a power can be exercised by the Magistrate either on the complaint made to it or its own observations regarding the age of the accused appearing before him. In the absence of an order of a Magistrate, the competent authority under the Act cannot hold inquiry for the purpose of determining whether the person brought before it is a juvenile or not. In the instant case when the accused was produced before the Magistrate, powers under Section 8 were not exercised, obviously upon satisfaction of the Magistrate tha....
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.... Section 8 thereof. In the case of the petitioner, it appears that the investigating officer, the Magistrate before whom the@@ accused was produced, the Magistrate who recorded his@@ confessional statement and the Sessions Court to whom the accused was committed did not find that the accused was a juvenile or a child. Such Magistrate and court were in a better position to form an opinion regarding the age of the accused who had admittedly appeared before them as they had the opportunity to see and observe him. There is no doubt in our mind that the plea of the petitioner being the juvenile is not only an after-thought but a concoction of his imagination at a belated stage to thwart the course of justice by having resort to wrangles of procedures and technicalities of law. In a case where the accused had not raised the plea of his being a child/Juvenile either before the committal@@ court, or the trial court, in appeal the High Court basing@@ merely on an entry made in the statement recorded under Section 313 of the Code, wherein his age was mentioned as 17 year, concluded that he was a child. Setting aside the Judgment of the High Court in State of Haryana vs. Balwant Singh [....
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.... 1997, which shows that he was more than 20 years of age on the date of occurrence, concededly not near or about the age of juvenile as defined under the Act. Dealing with the arguments of the petitioner being a juvenile, though raised at a belated stage, the trial court@@ dealt with the question of his age from paras 47 to 62 of@@ its judgment and concluded: "As such, in my view, he was not below 16 years of age at the time of alleged commission of the crime and he was not a juvenile to attract the provisions of Juvenile Justice Act, 1986." The High Court is also shown to have looked into the statements of Firato Chauhan (DW 1) Satnarayan Jadav (DW 2) besides Dr. B.C. Roy Medhi court witness for the purposes of ascertaining the age of the accused. However, the statements of those witnesses were not discussed in detail in view of the statement of Mr. J.M. Choudhry, advocate stated to be renowned criminal lawyer, who represented the accused, that he was not challenging the findings of the trial court on the point of age of the accused. It appears, as usually happens during the course of the arguments in a co....
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....y imprisonment for life. The plea regarding the age of the accused was determined by the trial court which dealt with the evidence relating to the age of the accused before, it holding: "DW1 Firato Chauhan was subjected to severe cross-examination and in the cross examination he admitted that Rajanth, the accused is his second son after Suraj Chauhan, his eldest son. There are three other sons after Ramdeo Chauhan. According to him, his present age is 70 years and the age of his only wife if 60 years. Two sons died and thereafter his eldest son Suraj was born. Every son and daughter born at an interval of three years. When he was 30 years old, his first child was born, that means, before 40 years his first child was born and his second child was born before 37 years. Suraj was born before 34 years. So, Ramdeo Chauhan must be bron befosre 31 years, that means, present age of Ramdeo Chauhan is 31 years. Furthermore, his first son Susraj has married before 10 years. He is now a father of one female child. Rajnath Chauhan is his second son, i.e. he was born after Suraj. Even if I hold that Suraj was 18 years at the t....
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....sion in register. He could not say on what basis date of birth was noted in the school admission register. There is no mention of the year in the admission here and there. He could not say who recorded the entry in the register. Moreover, the school register contains no serial page mark and as such there is scope of manipulating the record by inserting new sheet of papers. there is no seal and signature of the authority who supplied the register to the school. It seems that it was made and prepared at the school and DW 2 Sri Satya Narayan Yadav was not the headmaster at the relevant time. He is present headmaster and joined at school very recently. He has no personal knowledge regarding the exhibit as well as the age of the accused. In view of such evidence, the school admission register cannot be said to be authentic and original document of the age of the accused. Furthermore, Rajasthan High Court in Smt. Tara Devi, Appellant v. Smt. Sudesh Chaudhary, respondent reported in AIR 1998 Rajasthan 59 held that - Date of birth - Entries in school record - Made by Headmasters in discharge of their official duties - can be regarded as pieces of circumstantial evidence only within meaning....
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....g one after another with a spade, which has been vividly described by him 9n his confession made before the Judicial Magistrate, I think such type of pre plan, cold blooded, ghastly, gruesome murder cannot be possible for a boy below 16 years of age. It is quite natural on the part of the father and the defence to suppress the actual age to save the accused from the penalty likely to be awarded for the brutal murder as provided U/S 302 IPC. If such type of incredible evidence is allowed, in many cases, the accused will come up with such plea and thereby rendering our justice system ineffective and also eroding the credibility of the system. I am firm in my view that accused must be minimum 25 years of age at present." After examining the evidence led before the trial court in this regard I find no reason to disagree with the@@ reasoned conclusions arrived at by the trial court.@@ It is not disputed that the Register of Admission of students relied upon by the defence is not maintained under any statutory requirement. The author of the Register has also not been examined. The register is not paged at all. Column No.12 of the register deals with "age at the time of admission". Ent....
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.... of age on the date of occurrence. In reply to a question the doctor Sh.Bhushan Chandra Roy Medhi had stated that in my opinion the age of the accused cannot be more than 21 years. In reply to a question by the prosecution he had stated that "in my opinion the accused definitely has not attained the age of 25 years". In reply to the question put by the defence, the witness said "it is not a fact that he was of 18 or 19 years of age at the time of my examination. In this case the age of the accused cannot be below 20 years, it can exceed one year but cannot be below 20 years. It is not a fact that the accused was below 20 years at the time of my examination". Relying upon a judgment of this Court in Jaya Mala v. Home Secretary, Government of Jammu & Kashmir & Ors. [1982 (2) SCC 538], the learned defence counsel submitted that the court can take notice that the marginal error in age ascertained by radiological examination is two years at either side. The aforesaid case is of no help to the accused inamsuch as in that case the court was dealing with the age of a detenu taken in preventive custody and was not determining the extent of sentence to be awarded upon conviction of an ....
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....m has to be discouraged. After committing the crime of murder of four innocent persons, the petitioner cannot be permitted to resort to adopt means and tactics or to take measures which, if accepted or condoned, may result in the murder of the judicial system itself. The efforts made by the accused by way of this petition, are not likely to advance the interests of justice but on the contrary frustrate it. Learned counsel for the petitioner again made a futile attempt to challenge the verdict of the trial court under@@ the cloak of technicalities and submitted that as the@@ sentence and conviction were recorded on the same day, the judgment of the trial court was against the law. In support of his contentions he relied upon the judgments of this Court in Muniappan v. State of Tamil Nadu [1981 (3) SCC 11], Malkiat Singh & Ors. v. State of Punjab [1991 (4) SCC 341], State of Maharashtra v. Sukhdev Singh & Anr. [1992 (3) SCC 700]. Sub-section (2) of Section 235 of the Code provides that 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 accord....
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....vidence of all the witnesses in attendance has been recorded so that they may not be unnecessarily vexed. The underlying object is to discourage frequent adjournments. But that does not mean that the proviso precludes the court from adjourning the matter even where the interest of justice so demands. The proviso may not entitle an accused to an adjournment but it does not prohibit or preclude the court from granting one in such serious cases of life and death to satisfy the requirement of justice as enshrined in Section 235(2) of the Code. Expeditious disposal of a criminal case is indeed the requirement of Article 21 of the Constitution; so also a fair opportunity to place all relevant material before the court is equally the requirement of the said Article. Therefore, if the court feels that the interest of justice demands that the matter should be adjourned to enable both sides to place the relevant material touching on the question of sentence before the court, the above extracted proviso cannot preclude the court from doing so." The mandate of the Legislature is clear and unambiguous that no adjournment can be granted for the purpose only of enabling the accused person t....