The Bombay High Court, Aurangabad Bench, has refused to suspend the sentence and grant bail to two convicts sentenced to consecutive life imprisonment for double murder, holding that long incarceration by itself cannot justify suspension of sentence under Section 389 of the CrPC.
A Division Bench of JusticeSandipkumar C. More and JusticeMehroz K. Pathan dismissed applications filed by applicants, who have been in custody for nearly 11 years following their conviction under Section 302 read with Section 34 of the IPC for the murder of two persons.
The applicants sought suspension of sentence and release on bail solely on the ground of prolonged incarceration and delay in the hearing of their criminal appeals. However, the Court held that mere long custody cannot, as a matter of right, entitle a convict sentenced to life imprisonment for murder to bail, particularly without examining the gravity of the offence and other relevant factors.
The Court referred to the recent Supreme Court decisions in Omprakash Sahni v. Jai Shankar Chaudhary, (2023) 6 SCC 123 and Shivani Tyagi v. State of Uttar Pradesh, Criminal Appeal Nos.1957-1961 of 2024, where it was hed that in serious offences such as murder, courts must consider the nature of accusation, manner of commission, gravity of the crime, and the desirability of releasing the convict on bail and the long incarceration alone cannot override these considerations.
Holding that the applicants were convicted of a double murder and that the sentence imposed was of extreme severity, the High Court concluded that the power under Section 389 CrPC could not be exercised without adverting to the merits of the case. The applications were accordingly rejected
Appearances
Mr. A. D. Ostwal, Advocate for Applicant
Mr. S. J. Salgare, APP for Respondent-State
