B. P. Singh, J. - (1.) Special leave granted.
(2.) The appellant herein was found guilty of the offence under Section 302 read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code and was sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life and to pay a fine of Rs.2,000/-. He preferred an appeal before the High Court of Punjab and Haryana at Chandigarh against his conviction and sentence which was registered as Criminal Appeal No.29-DB of 2000. The said appeal was admitted for hearing on November 3, 2001. The appellants application for grant of regular bail was dismissed by order dated September 8, 2004. One of the co-accused namely, Satwant Singh was granted bail by the High Court by order dated September 17, 2004 since he had suffered imprisonment for three years after his conviction and, therefore, was covered by the ratio of the judgment in Dharampal vs. State of Haryana: 2000(1) CLR 74.
(3.) The case of the appellant is that his case is also covered by the said judgment and, therefore, he should also be released on bail. It was submitted on his behalf that in terms of the law as laid down in Dharampals case, he having undergone more than three years of actual sentence he deserves to be released on bail. The second bail application preferred by the appellant being Criminal Miscellaneous No.42316 of 2004 was dismissed by the High Court by its Order dated October 29, 2004. The High Court while rejecting the bail application observed that the appellant had not undergone three years of actual sentence after conviction, inasmuch as he had only undergone three years, one month and six days of sentence after conviction, and out of this period, he had remained on parole for eight months and twelve days. In sum and substance, the Court rejected his bail application on the ground that he had remained in actual custody after conviction only for two years and five months.;