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Jitendra @ Kalla v. State of Govt. of NCT of Delhi

Criminal Appeal · 2018 INSC 997Decided 25 Oct 2018
Criminal Appeal No. 2133 of 2017
Justice A.K. Sikri · Justice Ashok Bhushan

Background

The appellant was convicted of two separate murders in Delhi in 1999: first of a man at a wedding reception, and then, on the same night, of the father of an eyewitness to that first murder, apparently to silence the witness. The trial court gave him life imprisonment in both cases, with a 30-year no-remission condition in one and consecutive (rather than simultaneous) sentencing between the two. On appeal, the High Court upheld the convictions but reduced his sentence to time already served (about 17 years), then later issued a "correction" order removing that reduction, calling it a typographical fix. Both the appellant (challenging his conviction) and the complainants/State (challenging the sentence reduction) appealed to the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that the appellant's conviction was rightly recorded: his counsel had, on instructions, chosen not to contest the conviction before the High Court, and in any case the High Court had independently reviewed the evidence and confirmed guilt. On sentencing, the Court held that the High Court's February 2017 order was not a genuine correction of a typo but an improper attempt to revisit its own final December 2016 judgment, which it had no jurisdiction to do once delivered, only an appellate court could alter it. The Court also held that under Section 427(2) Cr.P.C. and binding precedent, two life sentences imposed in the same trial must run concurrently (not consecutively), so the High Court's call on that point was correct, but its separate move to erase the 30-year no-remission cap on life imprisonment was wrong and was set aside. The net result: the appellant's conviction and his life sentences (with the 30-year no-remission condition) were upheld, running concurrently; his own appeal was dismissed, while the complainants' and State's appeals were partly allowed.

Lesson Learnt

A High Court cannot use the guise of "correcting a typographical error" to substantively rewrite a sentence it has already finally pronounced: any such change can only be made on appeal to a higher court; and under Indian law, multiple life sentences from the same trial must run concurrently, not one after another.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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