Full Judgment Text
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PETITIONER:
DEVKI ALIAS KALA
Vs.
RESPONDENT:
THE STATE OF HARYANA
DATE OF JUDGMENT24/07/1979
BENCH:
KRISHNAIYER, V.R.
BENCH:
KRISHNAIYER, V.R.
DESAI, D.A.
KOSHAL, A.D.
CITATION:
1979 AIR 1948 1980 SCR (1) 21
1979 SCC (3) 760
ACT:
Sentencing process-Plea for an order to release anti-
social specialist criminals on probation under the Probation
of Offenders Act, 1958 (Act XX of 1958) is an insulting
stultification of the amelioratory legislation.
HEADNOTE:
The petitioner was convicted and sentenced under
Sections 366 and 368 Penal code to three years’ rigorous
imprisonment on each count for the offences of abduction,
seduction and sale of girls to others. In appeal, the High
Court confirmed the said order of conviction under Section
366 I.P.C. but set aside the conviction under Section 368
ibid.
Dismissing the special leave petition, the Court
^
HELD: It is an insulting stultification of the
amelioratory legislation viz. Probation of Offenders Act to
extend its considerate provisions to such anti-social
specialist criminals, as in this case, where the petitioner
an abominable culprit with sufficient expertise in the art
of abduction seduction and sale of girls, descended in a
taxi cab, kidnapped the young woman and when she cried out
administered the potion which rendered her unconscious and
by a well-laid out plan took her from the small town in
Bihar to Dhanbad and from there, via Delhi to Haryana and
lodged her in a house for obvious immoral purposes.[82C-E]
JUDGMENT:
CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION : Petition for Special
Leave to Appeal (Criminal) No. 1839 of 1979.
Appeal by Special Leave from the Judgment and Order
dated 19-1-1973 of the Punjab and Haryana High Court in
Criminal Appeal No. 329/75.
J. P. Goyal and S. K. Jain for the Petitioner.
The Order of the Court was delivered by
KRISHNA IYER, J. Parvati, an unsophisticated girl of 17
was wending her way home at about sunset along a public
street in the artless town of Sitalpur in Bihar when Smt.
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Devki, the petitioner before us, with diabolic design,
swooped down and snatched her into a taxi-cab and blized
away. The weeping victim was medicated into unconsciousness,
removed to Dhanbad and further on, to destination Haryana.
Tragically, where tourists abound, satellite industries in
female flesh flourish, unless the State crusades with
militant zeal to stamp out this terrible vice. Anyway,
Parvati, by now enslaved in a village villa. was offered for
marital sale to affluent lecherous youths. The damsel
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in distress desperately escaped through a half-ajar door and
eventually landed in a police station. The police
investigation unravelled the pathetic story and ended up in
a case, conviction, appeal, confirmation and, finally, in
this special leave petition to this Court which is the last
refuge of every vanquished litigant.
Confronted by concurrent findings of guilt, counsel for
the petitioner gave up his attack on the conviction and
concentrated his fire on the sentence, which, in this case,
was three years’ rigorous imprisonment. For what ? For
abducting a teenage girl and forcing her into sexual
submission with commercial object, a racket which has become
an enormous national menace, notwithstanding the
constitutional concern for the weaker sex. Counsel dared to
urge that the Probation of Offenders Act should be extended
to this abominable culprit who had shown sufficient
expertise in the art of abduction, seduction and sale of
girls to others who offer a tempting price. The features of
this case show that the petitioner suddenly descended in a
taxi-cab and kidnapped the young woman, and when she cried
out, administered the potion which rendered her unconscious.
Furthermore, a well layout plan is discernible when we see
the geographical spread of the crime. From a small town in
Bihar, the girl is despatched to Dhanbad and from there, via
Delhi, to Haryana, lodged in a house where young men were
asked to view her for obvious immoral purposes. It is an
insulting stultification of the amelioratory legislation
viz. Probation of Offenders Act to extend its considerate
provisions to such anti-social, specialist criminals. All
that we can do is to reject the plea with indignation and
follow it up with an appeal to the State Governments of
Bihar and of Haryana to put a special squad on the trail and
hound out every such offender so that the streets of our
towns and cities may be sanitized and safe after sunset for
Indian womanhood. Dismissed.
S.R. Petition dismissed.
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