Deciding Authority: The Supreme Court of India
Name of the Judges: Justice Altamas Kabir, Justice T.S. Thakur
Date of Judgement: 6 May 2010
Facts of the Case: An incident had taken place on 31st December, 2000, at about 9.30 p.m. at Hotel Connaught Castle involving PW15, Manoj Chhabra, who was being chased by a mob. At the request of Manoj Chhabra’s wife, the appellant, along with some other employees of the Hotel, brought Manoj Chhabra into the Hotel, but the incident continued and in order to prevent the mob from attacking Manoj Chhabra, the appellant had fired from his gun. The appellant incidentally was a Gun-man of the Sub-Divisional Magistrate, Chakrata, Mussoorie. This appeal came to the Supreme Court against the judgment by the Uttarakhand High Court which dismissed it and confirmed the judgment passed by the learned Sessions Judge, Dehradun. The Sessions Judge convicted the appellant under Section 324 IPC and sentencing him to two year’s rigorous imprisonment and fine of Rs.5000/-, and in default of payment of fine, to undergo further six months’ rigorous imprisonment.
Judgement: Having regard to the nature of the incident and the circumstances in which the firing took place, the Supreme Court was of the view that while maintaining the order of conviction, the quantum of sentence was imposed on the appellant must be reduced. The appeal was allowed in part and while the court maintained the conviction under section 324 IPC. The sentence was reduced from two years to one year’s rigorous imprisonment.
By: Roopali Mohan, 2nd Year, Vivekananda Institute of Professional Studies, New Delhi
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