The appellate court's decision to grant probation was upheld, emphasizing the consideration of the offenders' circumstances and the nature of the offence in sentencing.

Judgment :

1. Instant revision petition has been filed by the petitioner/complainant against the order dated 22.03.2007, passed by learned Sessions Judge, District Sriganganagar in Cr. Appeal No.45/2007 whereby the learned appellate court partly allowed the appeal of the accused-respondents No.2 to 6 and while affirming the judgment of the learned Chief Judicial Magistrate District Sriganganagar dated 28.02.2007 passed in Regular Cr. Case No.03/2000 to the extent of conviction for offences under Sections 147, 504, 323 & 342 IPC, set aside the sentence and instead gave benefit of probation to the accused- respondent Nos.2 to 6 under Section 4 of Probation of Offenders Act.

2. Briefly stated, the prosecution case as set up is that on 17.08.1993, petitioner/complainant gave an oral information at Police Station Sadul Sahar, District Sriganganar to the effect that at about 02:30 PM he was going to village Khairuwal to attend a marriage ceremony. When he reached near Masjid, the respondents No.2 to 6 along with other accused started abusing him and assaulted him with lathis. On the said information, Police registered a case against the accused-respondents and started investigation.

3. On completion of investigation, the police filed challan against the accused-respondents. Thereafter, the trial court framed charges for offences under Sections 323, 342, 504, 147 323/149 IPC. The accused respondents pleaded not guilty and claimed trial.

4. During the course of trial, the prosecution examined as many as 9 witnesses in support of its case and exhibited certain documents. Thereafter, statements of the accused respondents were recorded under section 313 Cr.P.C.

5. Upon conclusion of the trial, the learned trial court vide impugned judgment dated 28.02.2007 convicted and sentenced the accused-respondents for aforesaid offences.

6. Being aggrieved by their conviction and sentence, the accused-respondents preferred an appeal before the learned appellate court, which came to be partly allowed vide judgment dated 22.03.2007. The learned appellate court while maintaining the conviction of the accused-respondents for the aforesaid offences, set aside the sentence as awarded by the trial court and instead gave benefit of probation under Section 4 of the Probation of Offenders Act to the accused-respondents. Hence, this revision petition on behalf of the complainant/injured against the judgment of the appellate court.

7. Learned counsel for the petitioner argued that learned appellate court has committed grave error in giving benefit of probation to the accused-respondents despite the fact that the prosecution has proved its case beyond all reasonable doubts. Counsel submits that there is ample evidence available on record against the accused-respondents for commission of offence. Yet, the appellate court did not consider these aspects of the matter and despite conviction and sentence awarded by the trial court for aforesaid offences to the accused-respondents, the appellate court did not award any sentence and instead gave benefit of probation under Section 4 of Probation of Offenders Act, which is perverse and illegal. Thus, it is prayed that the impugned appellate judgment may be quashed and set aside to the extent of giving benefit of probation to the accused-respondents and the sentence awarded by the trial court may be upheld.

8. I have considered the submissions of the learned counsel for the petitioner and perused the judgments of the appellate court as well as trial court and also gone through the entire record.

9. The learned trial court, after meticulous appreciation of evidence and considering each and every aspect of the matter, has convicted and sentenced the accused-respondents for offences under Sections 147, 504, 323 & 342 IPC. The accused- respondents filed an appeal against their conviction and sentence before the appellate court. The learned appellate court while taking into consideration the facts that this was the first offence of th