‘Has Faced Agony Of Protracted Trial’: Punjab & Haryana High Court Reduces Sentence Of 70-Year-Old In 1994 Case For Adulterated Khoya

Observing that he has faced the agony of a protracted trial for such a long time, the Punjab & Haryana High Court has reduced the sentence of the 70-year-old convict to the period already undergone by him.

In the 1994 case, Ram Saran was convicted in 2007 under the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954 for adulterating 'khoya'. 

Justice Deepak Gupta said, “Offence was committed way back in December, 1994, i.e., more than 28 years back and this way, petitioner has faced agony of protracted trial for such a long time. Even if he remained bail during all this period except for a short period, the demon of his conviction was hanging on his head.”

While noting that Saran is now above 70 years of age and deficiency in the milk fat was found to be just 0.5% deficient, the Court said, “it will not be in the fitness of things to send the petitioner at such a ripe age behind bars to undergo the remaining part of sentence.”

The court was hearing the revision plea against the conviction by the Trial Court, which was affirmed by the Appellate Court in 2008.

In 1994, during an inspection, the khoya from Saran's shop was found to be adulterated. Saran was convicted by Chief Judicial Magistrate, Kurukshetra for committing offence under Section 16(1)(a)(i) of the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954. He was sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of six months and to pay a fine of Rs. 1,000/- with default sentence of 15 days. The appeal filed by him against the judgment of conviction and order of sentence was also dismissed.

The counsel for Saran argued that the minimum prescribed standard is 20% milk fat, and the sample was found to contain 19.5% milk fat, which indicates a deficiency of only 0.5%. He pointed out that it has already been almost 29 years and Saran is more than 70 years old.

Justice Gupta noted that Saran has already suffered incarceration of 15 days during July, 2005.

The bench referred to the Apex Court’s decision in Umrao Singh v. State of Haryana,1981 wherein percentage of deficiency in sample of milk was found to be 0.4% in fat contents. Accused was an old man suffering from asthma with clean past record. It was held by Supreme Court that “it was a fit case to award the sentence lower than the minimum prescribed sentence and sentence was reduced to the period already undergone.”

“As rightly pointed out earlier by counsel for the petitioner, offence was committed way back in December, 1994, i.e., more than 28 years back and this way, the petitioner has faced agony of protracted trial for such a long time,” Justice Gupta observed, while granting relief to Ram Saran,

Case Title: Ram Saran v. State of Haryana

Appearance: Ashit Malik, Advocate for the petitioner.

Parveen Kumar Aggarwal, DAG, Haryana.

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