“Sessions court is not empowered to extend tenure of imprisonment beyond what is provided in the statute”:The high court of Judicature At Bombay
Title : Bapu Bajarang patil vs The state of Maharashtra
Decided on: 23rd oct,2023
+Cri appeal no.168/3017
CORAM: HON’BLESMT.VIBHA KANKANWADI AND HON’BLE ABHAY S.WAGHWASE.
INTRODUCTION
The Appellant has filed an appeal against the judgement and order of learned Additional sessions judge ,Dhule were the appellant was convicted for offence under Section 302 of Indian penal code and sentenced to suffer imprisonment for life till remainder of his natural life and to pay fine. Whereas the Hon’ble court only interfed with modifying the sentence part of the impugned judgement as stating that sessions court is not empowered to extend tenure of imprisonment beyond what is provided in the statute and rest other order are maintained.
FACT
The appellant was convicted under section 302 of Indian penal code for pourind kerosine and set to ablaze buring to his deceased wife Ratnabai and was sentenced to suffer imprisonment for life till remainder of his natural life and to pay fine by the Additional session court .Whereas the Appellant file an appeal against the judgement and order passed by the Additional sessions court, Dhule Where the learned council for the appellant criticized the judgment by challenging on points on both the dying declaration & witnesses and also questioned the sentencing policy adopted by the learned Trial judge by pointing out that it was not open for the learned Additional Session judge to direct the appellant to suffer imprisonment for entire period of remaining of his life.Whereas the Learned APP canvassing in favour of the impugned judgement,and consequently he pray for dismissal of the appeal.
THE COURT ANALYSIS AND DECISION
The Hon’ble Court Analysis that firstly, dying declaration as both are not only voluntary but also are consistent on the material count, then court have gone through the ruling cited by the learned counsel for the appellant as the facts in the case are distinct therefore rulings cannot be taken recourse to buy the court accepted that it is rightly pointed out by the learned council for the appellant that learned trial judge has gone overboard by imposing sentence of suffering life imprisonment till natural death as court held that the sessions court is not empowered to extend tenure of imprisonment beyond what is provided in the statute. Therefore the court only interfed to modify the sentence part of the impugned judgement where the court proceed with the order stating that the appeal is hereby partly allowed as the conviction awarded to the appellant by the Additional sessions judge,Dhule under sec 302 of Indian penal code is hereby maintainable only the sentence imposed on appellant to suffer life imprisonment for the entire remaining of his life is hereby modified and now appellant is sentenced to suffer imprisonment for life and rest of the order passed by the Additional sessions judge is maintained.
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Written by – Prachee Novo Mukherjee
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