The Himachal Pradesh High Court has dismissed an application seeking suspension of sentence filed by two convicts sentenced to ten years’ rigorous imprisonment for an acid attack, holding that no exceptional circumstances were made out to warrant their release on bail during the pendency of the appeal.
A Division Bench of Justice Vivek Singh Thakur and Justice Ranjan Sharma was hearing an application under Section 430 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (formerly Section 389 CrPC). The applicants argued that there was an unexplained delay in lodging the FIR, inconsistencies in the prosecution case regarding the place of occurrence and the medical evidence, and that they had remained on bail throughout the trial without misusing the liberty granted to them.
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Rejecting the plea, the High Court observed that after conviction, the presumption of innocence no longer survives and the principles governing suspension of sentence are materially different from those applicable while considering bail for an undertrial. Relying on the Supreme Court’s decision in Shivani Tyagi v. State of U.P., AIR 2024 SC 4594 the Court reiterated that suspension of sentence is not the norm in cases involving serious offences such as acid attacks, which have a lasting impact on the victim’s bodily integrity and dignity.
The Bench noted that the applicants had undergone only about 7–8 months of imprisonment against a 10-year sentence and that the grounds raised primarily sought a reappreciation of evidence, which would be considered at the stage of final hearing of the appeal. Finding no exceptional circumstance justifying suspension of sentence, the Court dismissed the application while clarifying that its observations would not affect the merits of the pending criminal appeal.
