Judgment

HIDAYATULLAH, C.J.I. :- The appellant Laiq Singh, a former member of the legislative Assembly of Uttar Pradesh is the appellant before us with several others who all have been convicted under Section 365 read with Section 149 and Section 147 of the Indian Penal Code. Laiq Singh has been sentenced in the aggregate to three years; rigorous imprisonment and the others have been sentenced in the aggregate to one year s rigorous imprisonment. Previously, the Additional Sessions Judge, Kanpur had acquitted them in the trial before him. The State Government appealed and the acquittal was set aside and the conviction and the sentences as stated above resulted.

2. In the appeal before the High Court parties had put in an application for compounding the offence. There were several other offences with which these persons were charged. They were all compoundable. The offence for which they stand now convicted could not be compounded even with the permission of the Court with the result that the acquittal was recorded by the High Court in respect of the other offences, but the conviction and sentences in respect of the two offences which were mentioned above have been recorded.

3. In arguing the appeal. Mr. Chari did not seek to have the conviction set aside. He rather aimed at having the sentences reduced in the case to the period of imprisonment already undergone by the appellants. He made out a case on the record showing that the complainant Shashi Kala who was supposed to have been abducted with a view to her being either murdered or confined was not a person who would have been taken with this purpose. He took us through the history of the relationship between Laiq Singh and the complainant Shashi Kala and showed that they had been in intimate relations for several years. It appears that Laiq Singh was the guardian of Shashi Kala, but taking advantage of his position, he seduced her and got her pregnant on more than one occasion. Two abortions are deposed to by Shashi Kala. Subsequently she refused to have an abortion and a child was born to her. It was after this that Shashi Kala pressed upon Laiq Singh the fact of her having become the mother and asked him to marry her. Laiq Singh could not marry her, because he had already a wife living and the incident which is deposed to took place after Shashi Kala had gone to a cinema in the company of a Sub-Inspector, a relation of Laiq Singh and was returning from the cinema. According to Shashi Kala the Sub-Inspector got down from the jeep and three persons and the wife of Laiq Singh got in to the jeep. The jeep was then driven away and it was Shashi Kala s case that she was gagged while she was in the jeep so that she could not make any noise. However, the jeep was stopped at one place when the gag was removed, she shouted for help and that is how the party came to be arrested. Shashi Kala s apprehension was that she was being taken away by them to be murdered or to be confined in some place. The learned Judges in the High Court have accepted the latter version and have held that there was abduction with a view to confining Shashi Kala.

4. The offence would have been serious but for certain facts which have emerged in the case mainly through Shashi Kala herself. We have already stated that Shashi Lala and the main appellant Laiq Singh were in intimate relations over a long period. In fact Shashi Kala says that she was seduced when she was only 16 years or 17 years of age. At the time of the prosecution, Shashi Kala s age was about 24 years which shows that a period of about 7 years had passed between her first seduction and the complaint which resulted in this prosecution. During this time, Shashi Kala herself states that she became pregnant on three occasions and that finally she had a child after two abortions had been practised upon her. She also admits that she was introduced to some persons with a view to marriage with them, but she declined to marry the persons to whom she was in