TMI Blog2008 (7) TMI 1067X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... treated as a Special Leave Petition against the judgment of the High Court and shall be disposed of in the light of this Court's judgment in Ghapoo Yadav and Ors. v. State of Madhya Pradesh 2003 Cri LJ 1536. 2. Background facts in a nutshell are as follows: Five persons faced trial for alleged commission of offence punishable under Section 302 read with Section 149 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (in short the 'IPC'). The trial Court convicted all the five accused persons including the appellant in this Writ Petition and sentenced him to undergo RI for life. All the accused persons preferred appeal which was numbered as Criminal Appeal No. 718 of 1989 before the Madhya Pradesh High Court at Jabalpur. The High C ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... other accused was partly allowed by the Court and death sentence was commuted to imprisonment for life. SLP of the remaining accused thereafter was dismissed, review petition was also dismissed and his prayer for clemency came to be rejected by the President. When the date for execution of death penalty was fixed, he again approached this Court. 6. The Court noted that the course which the case had taken made a 'sad reading'. It was observed that it would be a sheer travesty of justice, if for the very same offence; one had to pay the extreme penalty of death whereas the other accused was to get life-imprisonment. In view of the fact, however, that the 'mercy petition' of the appellant was rejected by the President, ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Cri LJ 422 , Jayantibhai v. State of Gujarat 2002 Cri LJ 4734 , Suresh v. State of Bihar2003 Cri LJ 1717 , Apren Joseph v. State of Kerala1973 Cri LJ 185 ; Hira Lal v. Delhi Administration 1973 Cri LJ 47 , Uma Shankar v. State of Bihar (2005) 10 SCC 336. 9. In our view, similar course needs to be adopted. In the circumstances, by applying the decision in Vajrapu's case (supra), the conviction of the appellant is altered to Section 304 Part I, IPC and 10 years' custodial sentence with fine as was imposed by the High Court would meet the ends of justice, since the accused appellant stands on similar footing with the other accused persons who were the appellants in Criminal Appeal No. 229 of 2003. 10. The appeal is al ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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