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2000 DIGILAW 756 (PNJ)

Karambir Singh v. State of Haryana

2000-07-18

AMAR DUTT

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ORDER Amar Dutt, J. - Karambir Singh, petitioner, was convicted under Section 302 Indian Penal Code for life imprisonment by the Sessions Judge, Jind. In appeal, the conviction was altered by this Court to one under Section 304 Part I Indian Penal Code and the petitioner was awarded five years R.I. In the appeal filed by the State of Haryana before the Honble Supreme Court, the order of the High Court was maintained but the sentence enhanced to ten years. According to the petitioner, he has already undergone the sentence awarded and therefore through this petition, he has prayed that he should be released from the prison. The State Government is not released the petitioner from the custody on the ground that during the confinement in jail he had availed of temporary release on parole for a period of five months and 15 days which period could not be counted toward the imprisonment undergone. No reply has been filed by the State. 2. I have heard the learned counsel for the parties and have carefully considered the respective submissions made by them. 3. The short point which arises for determination in this petition is to whether the State would be entitled to deduct the period for which the petitioner has been on parole while calculating the sentence that has been undergone by the petitioner. The position of law in relation to this has been settled by the Apex Court in Sunil Fulchand Shah etc. v. Union of India and others, JT 2000(2) SC 230, and their Lordships have observed as under :- "That parole does not interrupt the period of detention and, thus, that period needs to be counted towards the total period of detention unless the terms for grant of parole, rules or instructions prescribe otherwise." 4. In view of this pronouncement, the petition has got to be allowed and a direction issued to the State of Haryana to not to exclude the period of parole while calculating the total period of sentence undergone by the petitioner and if the calculations given in the petition are found to be correct, the petitioner should be released from the custody forthwith. Petition allowed.