Judgment:
In the High Court of Punjab and Haryana at Chandigarh .....Criminal Revision No.1134 of 2014 (O&M) ....Date of decision:11.7.2014 Rajinder Singh ...Petitioner v.
State of Haryana ...Respondent ...Coram: Hon'ble Mr.Justice Inderjit Singh ....Present: Mr.Paramjit Singh Jammu, Advocate for the petitioner.
Mr.Anupam Sharma, Assistant Advocate General, Haryana for the respondent-State....Inderjit Singh, J.
Rajinder Singh-petitioner has filed this criminal revision petition against State of Haryana (respondent) under Section 401 Cr.P.C.challenging the impugned judgment dated 27.3.2014 passed by learned Additional Sessions Judge, SiRs.dismissing the appeal filed by the petitioner against the judgment and order dated 9.4.2012, whereby the petitioner has been convicted for the offence under Section 409 IPC and has been sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for three years and to pay a fine of `5,000/- and in default of payment of fine to undergo further imprisonment for one year.
It is mainly stated in the revision petition that the impugned Parmar Harpal Singh 2014.08.04 17:00 I attest to the accuracy and integrity of this document Chandigarh Cr.
Revision No.1134 of 2014 (O&M) [2].judgment of conviction and order of sentence dated 9.4.2012 passed by learned Sub Divisional Judicial Magistrate, Dabwali, vide which the petitioner has been held guilty for the commission of the offence under Section 409 IPC and sentenced him to undergo rigorous imprisonment as mentioned above as well as the impugned judgment dated 27.3.2014 passed by learned Additional Sessions Judge, Sirsa, vide which the appeal against the conviction and sentence filed by the petitioner was wrongly and illegally dismissed, are illegal, against the law and facts.
As per the brief facts of the prosecution version, the present petitioner was posted as a Bill Clerk in the Bill Branch of Division No.1, Public Health Department, Dabwali and it is alleged that during his tenure he had embezzled an amount of `2,09,668/- deposited by the consumers on account of water and sewerage charges.
In the revision petition, it is also stated that later on the Department re-calculated the alleged embezzled amount and came to the conclusion that in fact the embezzled amount was `2,76,302/-, whereas the alleged embezzled amount was already deposited on 13.6.2008 to the tune of `2,37,087/- and an amount of `39, 215/- was recovered from the pay of the petitioner and the total amount has already been recovered.
It is also stated that in fact the petitioner has not committed any offence under Section 409 IPC.
In fact, the petitioner has committed irregularity and could not maintain the record in a proper way and this is not a criminal offence.
At the time of preliminary hearing, learned counsel for the Parmar Harpal Singh 2014.08.04 17:00 I attest to the accuracy and integrity of this document Chandigarh Cr.
Revision No.1134 of 2014 (O&M) [3].petitioner has not disputed the concurrent findings recorded by the Courts below and he only prayed for reduction of sentence.
Notice of motion was issued only on the quantum of sentence.
Learned Assistant Advocate General, Haryana has put in appearance on behalf of the respondent-State and contested the revision petition.
I have heard learned counsel for the petitioner and learned Assistant Advocate General, Haryana appearing for the respondent-State and have gone through the record.
From the record, I find that concurrent findings of fact have not been disputed by the learned counsel for the revision petitioner at the time of preliminary hearing and also today while arguing the case.
He only prayed for reduction of the sentence on the ground that the petitioner has already been dismissed from the service.
The embezzled amount has already been deposited and the petitioner has suffered the long agony of the criminal trial from more than past six yeaRs.After hearing learned counsel for the petitioner, I find that the petitioner is the fiRs.offender.
As per arguments, the embezzled amount has already been deposited by the petitioner.
He has been been dismissed from the service.
He is also suffering the agony from more than past six yeaRs.the long and protracted criminal trial.
Keeping in view that he is the only bread winner and has family to look after, I hereby order to reduce the sentence imposed upon him under Section 409 IPC to rigorous imprisonment for one year instead Parmar Harpal Singh 2014.08.04 17:00 I attest to the accuracy and integrity of this document Chandigarh Cr.
Revision No.1134 of 2014 (O&M) [4].of rigorous imprisonment for three years and sentence of fine shall remain the same.
The fine as stated by the learned counsel for the petitioner, has already been paid.
With the above modification in the reduction of sentence, the criminal revision petition is partly allowed.
July 11, 2014.
(Inderjit Singh) Judge *hsp* Parmar Harpal Singh 2014.08.04 17:00 I attest to the accuracy and integrity of this document Chandigarh