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Judgment
Anand Prasad Sinha, J.—This application is directed against the order of conviction for the offences u/s 420 and 467 of the Indian Penal Code and the petitioner has been sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for one year under each count. The application has been admitted on the question of sentence only.
It appears that the prosecution has been initiated in the year 1972, about 14 years back. Moreover, the trial itself consumed complete 9 years as it has been concluded in the year, 1981. In my opinion the period consumed in the trial is exceedingly excessive and unreasonable. Such a criminal trial should not have taken more than six months or one year to be finished. In the facts and circumstances, the accused when put on trial for such a long period has sufficiently been punished in the process of trial itself and no further punishment can be said to be justified.
By no stretch of imagination and also considering the aims and objects of putting a person on trial or considering the theory of punishment, a person should not have been put on trial for such a long period. It may be appreciated that during the trial such an accused has to forgo some of his freedom, movement and also at times occupation, In addition to that, he has to carry a stigma, harassment and humiliation. In the instant case the petitioner has remained in jail for three months. In the facts and circumstances and in view of the discussion made above, the period already spent in jail is sufficient to meet to ends of justice. In this view of the matter, the sentence under both the counts is reduced to she period of imprisonment already undergone.
With the modification in the sentence, the application is dismissed.