Abdoolcader J (delivering oral judgment):

The cases against the first appellant, arraigned on two charges, one of criminal intimidation and the other relating to extortion, and the second appellant, on a substantive charge of abetment of criminal intimidation by the 1st appellant and an alternative charge of criminal Conspiracy, were called up on 3 June this year by the President of the Sessions Court conferred at the material time with special jurisdiction under s. 63(3) (since repealed) of the Subordinate Courts Act 1948, and on their plea of guilty and subsequent conviction the first appellant was sentenced to the maximum but a concurrent term of seven years' imprisonment on both the charges preferred against him, and the second appellant to a term of three years' imprisonment on the substantive charge. The appellants now appeal against both conviction and sentence.

Section 305 of the Criminal Procedure Code which is based on s. 412 of the Indian Criminal Procedure Code of 1898 (since repealed and re-enacted in 1973) provides that there shall be no appeal by an accused person convicted on a plea of guilty except as to the extent or legality of the sentence. As a matter