High Court of Punjab and HaryanaCRM-M/28410/2025allowed

Nishan Singh Alias Vicky v. State Of Punjab

2025-05-27Mr. Justice Sandeep Moudgil8 pages

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!6 "Statement of Gurpreet Singh son of Labh Singh Caste Mazbi Sikh, resident of Chhapri Sahib, Police Station: Goindwal

Sahib, aged about 23 years, mobile No.98723(08785, stated that I am resident of abovesaid address and I am doing labour work. We are five brother(sisters, the eldest one is Mangal Singh, younger to him is Jassa Singh, younger to them sister Sukhbir Kaur, who is married, younger to her sister Jassi Kaur and I am the youngest. There is a house situated in front side of our house is belonging to Nishan Singh son of Jaswant Singh. On 08.02.2019 at around 3 PM, I was going towards house through my street, then Satnam Singh @ Sattu son of Jaswant Singh caste Mazbi Sikh resident of Chhapri Sahib hit his motorcycle from the backside, then I told him that drive the motorcycle carefully and while using bad language to me, he went to his house.

At around 7 PM, I was standing in the street in front of the outside gate, where abovesaid Satnam Singh @ Sattu armed with Dattar, Nishan Singh @ Vicky son of Jaswant Singh with baseball, Sukhchain Singh @ Chaina son of Hazara Singh with gandasi, Sarabjit Singh son of Puran Singh with stick, Satnam Singh son of Sarabjit Singh with stick and Hardeep Singh @ Sandhi son of Hazara Singh with stick, caste Mazbi Sikh, residents of Chhapri Sati, came out from the house of avovesaid Satnam Singh and on seeing me, abovesaid Nishan Singh raised 'Lalkara' that catch him hold, teach him a lesson to raise any dispute with Satnam Singh by Gurpreet Singh, thereafter abovesaid Satnam Singh gave blow with the reverse side of his dattar on me, which landed on the ankle of my right leg, in the meantime, Sarabjit Singh son of Puran Singh gave blow with his dattar on me, which landed above on my left knee.

. my father, then abovesaid Hardeep Singh @ Sandhi gave blow with his stick on my mother, which landed in the backside of her head and Satnam Singh son of Sarabjit Singh also gave blow with his stick on my mother, which landed on elbow of her left arm. We raised alarm 'mar ditta ( mar ditta', then after hearing the alarm, my paternal uncle Sahab Singh son of Kartar Singh and his son Sucha Singh came at the spot and other people also gathered and the accused fled away from the spot with their respective weapons. This entire occurrence was seen by my paternal uncle Sahab Singh, his son Sucha Singh and my sister( in(law (Bhabhi) Ramandeep Kaur wife of Mangal Singh.

Then my paternal uncle Sahab Singh and my sister(in(law (Bhabhi) Ramandeep Kaur got us admitted in Civil Hospital Khadoor Sahib after getting the docket passed from the police(post and after giving the treatment to my mother, the Doctor discharged my mother on 10.02.19 and iny father was referred to Guru Nanak Dev Hospital due to deep wound and on 16.02.19, my father was discharged after treatment and my father was got admitted in Guru Nanak Hospital again on the same day due to the reason that he was not fine and on 17.02.19, my father was referred to Shree Guru Ramdas Charitable Hospital Amritsar. Due to the critical condition of my father, he is under treatment. The reason/ estrangement is that our houses (our house and Satnam Singh @ Sattü's house are situated in front of each other.

There was a fight/ dispute occurred earlier between us, wherein the respectable persons of the village got the matter compromised. Today, I alongwith my paternal uncle Sahab Singh, was coming to you to give the information, you met. I have submitted MRs and X(Ray reports belonging to me and my mother Jagir Kaur and MLR of my father. Till date, the respectable/ persons were trying to get the matter solved/ compromised between us, but it could be succeeded. I have got my statement recorded, heard, it is correct. I am the complainant, action be taken. Sd/( Gurpreet Singh."

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!6 "2. A fundamental postulate of criminal jurisprudence is the presumption of innocence, meaning thereby that a person is believed to be innocent until found guilty. However, there are instances in our criminal law where a reverse onus has been placed on an accused with regard to some specific offences but that is another matter and does not detract from the fundamental postulate in respect of other offences. Yet another important facet of our criminal jurisprudence is that the grant of bail is the general rule and putting a person in jail or in a prison or in a correction home (whichever expression one may wish to use) is an exception. Unfortunately, some of these basic principles appear to have been lost sight of with the result that more and more persons are being incarcerated and for longer periods. This does not do any good to our criminal jurisprudence or to our society.

3. There is no doubt that the grant or denial of bail is entirely the discretion of the judge considering a case but even so, the exercise of judicial discretion has been circumscribed by a large number of decisions rendered by this Court and by every High Court in the country. Yet, occasionally there is a necessity to introspect whether denying bail to an accused person is the right thing to do on the facts and in the circumstances of a case.

4. While so introspecting, among the factors that need to be considered is whether the accused was arrested during investigations when that person perhaps has the best opportunity to tamper with the evidence or influence witnesses. If the investigating officer does not find it necessary to arrest an accused person during investigations, a strong case should be made out for placing that person in

7 judicial custody after a charge sheet is filed. Similarly, it is important to ascertain whether the accused was participating in the investigations to the satisfaction of the investigating officer and was not absconding or not appearing when required by the investigating officer. Surely, if an accused is not hiding from the investigating officer or is hiding due to some genuine and expressed fear of being victimised, it would be a factor that a judge would need to consider in an appropriate case. It is also necessary for the judge to consider whether the accused is a first(time offender or has been accused of other offences and if so, the nature of such offences and his or her general conduct. The poverty or the deemed indigent status of an accused is also an extremely important factor and even Parliament has taken notice of it by incorporating an Explanation to section 436 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973. An equally soft approach to incarceration has been taken by Parliament by inserting section 436A in the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973.

5. To put it shortly, a humane attitude is required to be adopted by a judge, while dealing with an application for remanding a suspect or an accused person to police custody or judicial custody. There are several reasons for this including maintaining the dignity of an accused person, howsoever poor that person might be, the requirements of Article 21 of the Constitution and the fact that there is enormous overcrowding in prisons, leading to social and other problems as noticed by this Court in In Re(Inhuman Conditions in 1382 Prisons, 2017(4) RCR (Criminal) 416: 2017(5) Recent Apex Judgments (R.A.J.) 408 : (2017) 10 SCC

6. The historical background of the provision for bail has been elaborately and lucidly explained in a recent decision delivered in Nikesh Tara chand Shah v. Union of India, 2017

(13) SCALE 609 going back to the days of the Magna Carta. In that decision, reference was made to Gurbaksh Singh Sibbia v. State of Punjab, (1980) 2 SCC 565 in which it is observed that it was held way back in Nagendra v. King(

Emperor, AIR 1924 Calcutta 476 that bail is not to be withheld as a punishment. Reference was also made to Emperor v. Hutchinson, AIR 1931 Allahabad 356 wherein it was observed that grant of bail is the rule and refusal is the exception. The provision for bail is therefore age(old and the liberal interpretation to the provision for bail is almost a century old, going back to colonial days.

7. However, we should not be understood to mean that bail should be granted in every case. The grant or refusal of bail is entirely within the discretion of the judge hearing the matter and though that discretion is unfettered, it must be exercised judiciously and in a humane manner and compassionately. Also, conditions for the grant of bail ought not to be so strict as to be incapable of compliance, thereby making the grant of bail illusory."

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!6 "7. An accused has a right to a fair trial and while a hurried trial is frowned upon as it may not give sufficient time to prepare for the defence, an inordinate delay in conclusion of the trial would infringe the right of an accused guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution.

8. It is not for nothing the Author Oscar Wilde in "The Ballad of Reading Gaol", wrote the following poignant lines while being incarcerated:

"I know not whether Laws be right, Or whether Laws be wrong;

All that we know who be in jail

Is that the wall is strong;

And that each day is like a year, A year whose days are long."

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sham Whether speaking/reasoned Yes/No Whether reportable Yes/No