The court has the discretion to modify a sentence based on the facts and circumstances of the case, including the age of the accused.

ORDER

1. This appeal arises out of judgment and order dated 9 th January, 2008 passed by the High Court of Punjab and Haryana at Chandigarh in Criminal Appeal No. 212-DB of 1998 whereby the High Court has dismissed the appeal preferred by the appellant while affirming the sentence awarded by the trial court under Section 302 and 506, IPC to undergo life imprisonment and to pay a fine of Rs.500/- and also to undergo rigorous imprisonment for two years for the offence under Section 506, IPC.

2. The facts, in brief, can be summarized as under:

One Roshan Lal (PW-6) and Hanuman Parshad (PW-11) are real brothers and are sons of deceased Jagdish Parshad. The former runs a shop in the area of Village Nangal. In the early part of the day on 23 rd January, 1995, the appellant and his two brothers namely Satbir and Tejpal stood in front of the shop run by Roshan Lal who requested them not to stand in front of the shop. The objections raised by him infuriated appellant and his two brothers. The appellant gave a lathi blow and his two brothers gave fist blows to Roshan Lal. Shri Ram and Hunuman Parshad, the prosecution witnesses appeared on the scene in the meantime and saved Roshan Lal.

3. Later in the day, at about 9.30 a.m., Hanuman Parshad left for Ateli where his brother Rajinder runs a shop. He and Rajinder Singh proceeded towards Ateli Mandi. At that point of time, Hanuman Parshad spotted his father Jagdish Parshad coming from the other side of Mandi Ateli. Appellant-Bhagmal suddenly surfaced from out of the mustered oil armed with an iron rod. He gave a blow with iron rod on the right side of head of Jagdish Parshad who fell down on account of the impact and became unconscious. The appellant also held out a threat that in case any one tried to endeavour rescuing Jagdish Parshad, he (appellant) would kill him. Even thereafter, the appellant fled the scene while taking away the weapon withwhich he had belabored Jagdish Parshad. Jagidish Parshad was taken to PHC Ateli from where he was referred to General Hospital Narnaul. The appellant fled from the scene taking away the weapon with which had belabored Jagdish Parshad. Jagdish Parshad was taken to hospital and died on 25 th January, 1995.

4. Aggrieved by the sentence and conviction awarded by the courts below, the appellant has come up before us in this appeal.

5. It is submitted by learned counsel for the appellant that only a single blow was inflicted by the appellant and his age at the time of incident was 20 years. There was no enmity and method and manner in which the sentence was awarded, it is not a fit case falling under Section 302, IPC. It is further stated by learned counsel for the appellant that appellant has already undergone sentence for 10 years and a few months, and under the circumstances, the remainder of sentence should be set aside.

6. Having regard to the facts and circumstances of the case and evidence on record, we modify the sentence to one falling under Section 304, Part-II, IPC and set aside remainder of the sentence. The bail bonds of the appellant, who is said to be on bail, shall stand discharged.

7. The appeal is allowed to the aforesaid extent.