The Supreme Court in the case Razia Khan v. State of MP observed and has granted the benefit of probation to a social worker who was convicted of assaulting a public servant and reduced her sentence to 1 month.
The said incident relates to the year 1992, when she had barged into the office of the Directorate, the Women and Child Development and abused and pushed a public official who got injured in her right finger.
The bench comprising of Justice Abhay S. Oka and Justice Sanjay Karol was hearing the present plea moved by Madhya Pradesh High Court judgment which had sentenced her to rigorous imprisonment for 6 months for causing grievous hurt and assaulting a public servant.
The court in the case observed that the matter was over 30 years old where appellant was out on bail all these years. She being an old lady of 62 years. It has been acknowledged by the said court that there was no scuffle as such and the appellant was only raising the concerns of laborers.
Further, the court while considering the facts and circumstances of the case stated that the appellant deserves to be shown leniency when it comes to the substantive sentence. Therefore, the distinct factors taken individually, do not constitute a ground by itself to show leniency. For example, only because an accused is on bail for a long time, thus, it being no ground itself to show leniency. It is only one of the several factors to be considered. But we have considered these factors cumulatively.
However, the said court proposed to shut down the sentence of the appellant for the offense punishable as stated under Section 333 to simple imprisonment for one month.
Accordingly, the court allowed the appeal of the party and has upheld the conviction but at the same time reduced the jail term to 1-month simple imprisonment for offenses stated under section 333 and section 451 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860. The court also imposed the fine for an amount of Rs. 25000 which is to be given to the injured public servant.
