AMAR DUTT,J - (1.) JARNAIL Singh being aggrieved by the judgment dated 14.2.1997 passed by the Sessions Judge, Faridkot had filed the present appeal through the Punjab Legal Services Authority.
(2.) AT the time of arguments, Ms. Vandana Malhotra, Advocate on behalf of the Punjab Legal Services Authority has filed an office report of the Additional Member Secretary of the Punjab Legal Services Authority, Chandigarh for bringing to the notice of this Court that the appellant having already been released from the District Jail, Faridkot on 19.10.2005 after having completed his sentence on the basis of remissions granted to him has intimated the Authority that he had already undergone the sentence and he did not wish to pursue the appeal any more before stating that :- "Hence, in view of the statement given by the appellant in writing appropriate orders may be passed." The filing of this application brings into focus two significant lapses :- (i) the fact that the casual approach with which persons Incharge of providing legal aid to down-trodden and under-privileged section of society, who are not able to finance their own litigation approach the task assigned to them inasmuch as before supplying this information they have not even studied the extant legal position which obliges the High Court to decide an appeal that is being filed before it in cases where it does not choose to deal with the same under Section 384(1) of the Code of Criminal Procedure; and (ii) the fact that in our judicial system, we are at times not able to decide the rights of the parties in criminal matters before the decision on the appeal is rendered irrelevant from the stand point of the appellant. What has been stated by the appellant incorporates the anguish of an undertrial/ convict who has already undergone the imprisonment imposed on him without having the benefit of an appellate judgment.
(3.) TAKING up the second issue first we are of the view that as such a situation does not bring any credit to the institution, it might be appropriate for the institution to consider ways and means of ensuring that the cases of persons who are in custody are decided before they complete the sentences awarded to them.;