While appreciating the evidence, the High Court should have given proper weight to the views of the trial court as to the credibility of all evidence of PWs 1 and 3. When the findings recorded by the trial court is based upon appreciation of evidence, the High Court was not right in reversing the judgment of the trial court. In so far as the sentence of imprisonment is concerned for conviction under Section 13(1)(d) of the Act, the trial court imposed sentence of imprisonment of two years upon each of the accused. The occurrence was of the year 1991 that is about 27 years ago. Considering the passage of time, we deem it appropriate to reduce the sentence of imprisonment of two years to the statutory minimum imprisonment of one year. The respondents/accused Nos.1 and 2 shall surrender themselves to serve the remaining sentence within two weeks from today, failing which, they shall be taken into custody. .....State of Gujarat =VS= Navinbhai Chandrakant Joshi, (Criminal), 2018 (2) [5 LM (SC) 87] ....View Full Judgment

Commute the sentence of death of imprisonment for life– We do not find any reason to differ from the views expressed by the trial Court and the High Court Division regarding the conviction of the accused. We respectfully agree that the condemned appellants were rightly convicted under sections 302/34 of the Penal Code.
It has been held in several cases of this Division that long periods spent in the condemned cell would not by itself mean that sentence of death should be commuted. However, we find that the appellants do not have any previous convictions, and it is unlikely that they would be a threat to society. Moreover, in her testimony PW15, Mussammat Monirunnahar, the only direct eyewitness of the occurrence, stated that the three accused persons, namely Nesar, Aksed and Kuran simultaneously assaulted the victim with knives. Seven injuries were found on various parts of the body of the victim. Hence, it is not possible to say specifically which assailant dealt the blow that led to the death of the victim. In such circumstances, we are inclined to commute the sentence of death to one of imprisonment for life.
We are of the view that ends of justice will be sufficiently met if the sentence of death imposed upon the appellants Al Haj Md. Nesar Uddin Gazi and Md. Aksed Ali Gazi is commuted to one of imprisonment for life. In addition,they are to pay a fine of Tk.5000/- each, in default to suffer rigorous imprisonment for 15 days more. ...Nesar Uddin Gazi(Al Haj Md.) =VS= The State, (Criminal), 2021(1) [10 LM (AD) 377] ....View Full Judgment