Neutral Citation No. - 2025:AHC:116041 Court No. - 84 Case :- CRIMINAL APPEAL No. - 1134 of 1984 Appellant :- Dalsigar And Others Respondent :- State of U.P. Counsel for Appellant :- Manoj Kumar Yadav,Ravindra Singh Counsel for Respondent :- A.G.A. Hon'ble Subhash Chandra Sharma,J. Heard Sri Manoj Kumar Yadav, learned counsel for the appellants as well as learned A.G.A. for the State and perused the material on record. This criminal appeal has been filed against the judgment and order passed by the learned 2nd Additional Sessions Judge, Jaunpur dated 31.03.1984 in S.T. No.340 of 1983 by which the learned trial court convicted and sentenced the appellants u/s 379 I.P.C. for a period of 6 months rigorous imprisonment. Facts in brief are that on 11.08.1982 at about 6:00 A.M. in the Village Ugapur, Police Station Sikrara, District Jaunpur the appellants are said to cut forcibly the bamboo clumps from the field of informant Lal Bahadur. On submission of charge sheet by the I.O. after compliance of Section 208 Cr.P.C. on the basis of complaint appellants were summoned by the learned court of Magistrate for trial of offence u/s 395 I.P.C. and case was committed for trial. The learned trial court framed the charge against the appellant u/s 395 I.P.C. During trial the prosecution adduced PW-1 Lal Bahadur, the informant and PW-2 Sangram as witnesses of facts and after hearing the arguments for the complainant/prosecution and the appellants passed the judgment in question dated 31.03.1984 and convicted the appellants u/s 379 I.P.C. sentenced for a period of 6 months rigorous imprisonment. It is submitted by learned counsel for the revisionist that in this case appellants have become aged about 80 years and are too old, as the incident took place in the year 1982 and till now 42 years have elapsed. After conviction the appellants remained in jail for a period of 15 days, therefore, request to reduce the sentence to the extent of undergone. Learned A.G.A. opposed the prayer as aforesaid. Now, this court has to consider about the sentence to be awarded to the appellants for the offence under Section 379 I.P.C. In this regard, it is to be noted that incident took place on 11.08.1982 and by now 42 years have elapsed. The appellants have become aged about 80 years and all of them are suffering from the old age infirmities. In the case of Neelam Bahal & another v. State of Uttrakhand 2010 (2) SCC 229 where conviction and sentence of appellant u/s 307 IPC was converted into S.326 IPC simpliciter. Incident took place in the year 1987 and appellant was about 25 years old. Considering the facts and circumstances of the case, Hon'ble the Apex Court reduced the sentence to the period undergone by him. Likewise, in the case of Hussainbhai Asgarali Lokhandwala v. State of Gujarat dated 14 August 2024 in Criminal Appeal No. 1691 of 2023 Hon'ble Apex Court modified to the period of incarceration already undergone by him while maintaining the conviction where the entire incident had occurred in the heat of moment on 07.11.2000. Since the present incident is said to have taken place on 11.08.1982 and the appellants have now become about 80 years old. They have served the sentence about 15 days after conviction. The offence is also related to cutting bamboo clumps, therefore, after elapse of 42 years, it will serve no purpose to send the appellants to jail but it is in the interest of justice to sentence the appellants with period already undergone by them. Accordingly, this criminal appeal is partly allowed and the sentence against the appellants is reduced to the period already undergone by them. Copy of this judgment along-with trial court record be transmitted to the learned court concerned for necessary compliance. A compliance report be sent to this Court within two months. Office is directed to keep the compliance report on record. Order Date :- 17.7.2025 Ashok Gupta Digitally signed by :- ASHOK KUMAR GUPTA High Court of Judicature at Allahabad