Single judge allowed regular bail to the petitioner in a murder case after noting his incarceration exceeded 11 months despite the prosecution failing to examine a single witness recently.
Petitioner is ordered to be released on regular bail, subject to furnishing bail/surety bonds to the satisfaction of the concerned Trial Court/Magistrate.
This page shows the compact analysis of this judgement. The full analysis — procedural history, issue-by-issue holdings with ratio and obiter, advocates, and paragraph-level evidence for every claim — is being added to the record in batches and will appear here when this judgement has been through it.
[207] IN THE HIGH COURT OF P UNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIG A RH
CRM-M- 2 1556-2024 Date of D ecision : 21.08.2024
Harchan d Singh @ Jhand …Petitioner
versus
State of P unjab ….Respondent
Coram : HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE PANKAJ JAIN
Present: Mr. Gursimran Singh Bawa, Advocate for the petitioner. Mr. Solomon Partap Singh, A AG, Punjab.
PANKAJ JAIN, J. (ORAL)
[1] Prayer in this petition filed under Section 439 Cr.P.C. is for grant of r egular bail to the petitioner in c ase FIR No.169 dated 18.09.2 0 22 registere d under Section 304 IPC, 1860 a t Police Station Sadar Patti, Dis t rict Tarn Tar a n during the pendency of the tri a l.
[2] Status report by way of af f idavit of Shri Kanwalpreet Si n gh, PPS, De p uty Superintendent of Police, Sub Division Patti, District T arn Taran, o n behalf of the respondent-State a s well as Custody certificate d a ted 20.08.20 2 4 have been filed in Court tod a y. The same are taken on rec o rd. As per the custody certificate, the petito n er is behind bars for more tha n 01 year and 1 1 months by now. [3] As per the case of the prose c ution, Nishan Singh son of Su b eg Singh di e d from an over dose of an i n toxicant administered by wa y of injection. During the course of the inves t igation, statement of mother of the deceased was recorded, who named Kul d eep Singh. He is alleged to h ave RAJNEESH SHARMA 2024.08.22 22:33 I attest to the accuracy and nominate d the present petitioner to be an a ccomplice. Report under Secti o n integrity of this document
CRM-M- 2 1556-2024 -2-
173(2) C r.P.C. was filed on 13.03.2023. Supplementary challan w as presente d on 24.07.2003. Charges were f ramed on 18.09.2023 and till date, no witness could be examined.
[4] Without commenting on the merits of the case, keeping in v i ew the incar c eration suffered by the petitio n er and the fact that in the las t 11 months, t he prosecution has failed to e xamine even a single prosecu t ion witness, t he present petition is allowed. Petitioner is ordered to be rele a sed on regula r bail, subject to his furnishing b ail/surety bonds to the satisfac t ion of the lea r ned Trial Court/Magistrate, co n cerned.
(PANKAJ JAIN) JUDGE 21.08.20 2 4 ‘R. Sharma' Whether speaking/ reasoned : Yes/No Whether reportable : Yes/No
RAJNEESH SHARMA 2024.08.22 22:33 I attest to the accuracy and integrity of this document
1 issue framed by the court
Whether to grant regular bail to the petitioner who has been in jail for over a year and eleven months despite the prosecution failing to examine any witness in the last eleven months.
2 provisions across 2 enactments
Harchan d Singh @ Jhand
State of Punjab
PANKAJ JAIN
As recorded by the court registry
Judgements on the same questions, provisions and authorities, from every court
