The court upheld the conviction but modified the sentence to the time already served, considering the petitioner's long trial and personal hardships.

Judgment :

1. By way of filing the instant criminal revision petition, a challenge has been made to the order dated 15.07.2003 passed by learned Additional District & Sessions Judge No.3, Jodhpur in Criminal Appeal No.34/2003 whereby the learned appellate Court partly allowed the appeal filed against the judgment of conviction dated 17.11.2000 passed by the learned Judicial Magistrate (First Class), Pipar Shahar in Criminal Case No.265/1996 whereby learned trial Judge convicted and sentenced the petitioner as under:-

2. All the sentences were ordered to run concurrently and the period spent in judicial custody shall be adjusted in the original imprisonment.

3. The gist of the prosecution story is that on 10.05.1996, complainant Amraram submitted a written report at Police Station Pipar Shahar to the extent that at about 12:30 PM he reached near Nanan Road and at that time, Bhagirath riding a moped along with Bhagaram were coming towards Pipar from Nanan. At the same time, a truck being driven rashly and negligently by the petitioner coming from Nanan hit the moped due to which Bhagirath died on the spot and Bhagaram got injured. Upon the aforesaid information, an FIR was registered and after usual investigation, charge-sheet came to be submitted against the petitioner in the Court concerned.

4. The Learned Magistrate framed charge against the petitioner for offences under Sections 279, 337 & 304-A of IPC upon denial of guilt by the accused, commenced the trial. During the course of trial, as many as 7 witnesses were examined and some documents were exhibited. Thereafter, an explanation was sought from the accused-petitioner under Section 313 Cr.P.C. for which he denied the same. After hearing the learned counsel for the accused petitioner and meticulous appreciation of the evidence, learned Trial Judge convicted the accused for offence under Sections 279, 337 & 304A of IPC vide judgment dated 17.11.2000. Aggrieved by the judgment of conviction, he preferred an appeal before the learned Additional District & Sessions Judge No.3, Jodhpur which was partly allowed vide judgment dated 15.07.2003. Both these judgments are under assail before this Court in the instant revision petition.

5. Learned counsel Mr. Ranjeet Joshi, representing the petitioner, at the outset submits that he does not dispute the finding of guilt and the judgment of conviction passed by the learned trial court and upheld by the learned appellate court, but at the same time, he implores that the incident took place in the year 1996. He had remained in jail for about 3 days after passing of the judgment by the appellate court. No other case has been reported against him. He hails from a very poor family and belongs to the weaker section of the society. He is facing trial since the year 1996 and he has languished in jail for some time, therefore, a lenient view may be taken in reducing his sentence.

6. Learned public prosecutor though opposed the submissions made on behalf of the petitioner but does not refute the fact that the petitioner has remained behind the bars for about 3 days and except the present one no other case has been registered against him.

7. Since the revision petition against conviction is not pressed and after perusing the material, nothing is noticed which requires interference in the finding of guilt reached by learned courts below, this court does not wish to interfere in the judgment of conviction. Accordingly, the judgment of conviction is maintained.

8. As far as the question of sentence is concerned, the petitioner remained in jail for some time and he is facing the rigor for last 29 years. Thus, in the light of the judgments passed by the Hon’ble Supreme Court in the cases of Haripada Das Vs. State of