By Kanu Sarda, IANS,
New Delhi : Worried by the “alarming and sinister increase” in instances of convicts going untraceable when out on parole or when their sentence has been suspended and then filing appeal when declared proclaimed offender, the Delhi High Court has ruled that such appeals should not be entertained.
Passing the order, a division bench comprising of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Ajit Bharioke said last week that convicts should not be allowed to “abuse the process and defeat criminal justice”.
The bench said in its order: “We reiterate that there is an alarming and sinister increase in instances where convicts have filed appeals apparently with a view to circumvent and escape undergoing the sentences awarded against them.
“The routine is to file an appeal, apply and be enlarged on bail and thereafter to become untraceable. It is the bounden and pious duty cast upon the Judge not merely to ensure that an innocent person is not punished but equally not to be a mute spectator or an instrument by which a convict escapes serving out his sentence.”
The court passed the order while dismissing a plea of Om Bahadur Gurung, who was given life imprisonment for committing murder and robbery by a lower court in 1996. He was released from jail on interim bail for one month in 1999. But he failed to surrender before the court and could not be located.
When police launched the process of declaring him a proclaimed offender, Gurung approached the court for relief.
Turning down his plea, the court said: “This court has been faced with a number of appeals where the accused has either jumped parole or where the sentence was suspended on account of the appeal not being taken up for hearing and has become untraceable, and neither the appellant nor the counsel appears to argue the appeal.”
The court observed that if it “is derelict in doing its duty, the social framework will be rent asunder and anarchy will rule everywhere”. It noted: “It is, therefore, imperative to put an end to such practice by dismissing appeals to meet the ends of justice.”
The court also pulled up the appellant and asked Gurung to surrender.
“The convict has no intention of pursuing his appeal and the filing of the appeal was only a charade and a stratagem to frustrate the outcome of a just trial. Tolerance is called for where the convict has expiated his crime.
“A convict cannot abuse the process and defeat criminal justice.”