- (1.) IN criminal case No.6970/1993 relating to FIR No.142/1993 of Police Station Sardarpura District Jodhpur, the court of Judicial Magistrate No.4, Jodhpur by its judgment dated 02.11.1996 had convicted the accused -petitioner Girdhari Lal under section 279 and 304A of the Indian Penal Code. A compact sentence was passed against him and he was ordered to suffer one year imprisonment along with a fine of Rs.2000/ - and fine so deposited was ordered to be given as compensation to the legal representatives of the deceased.
(2.) THE criminal appeal No.01/1997 of accused -petitioner Girdhari Lal decided on 22.04.1997 by the court of Additional Sessions Judge No.2, Jodhpur and fine amount of Rs.2000/ - was enhanced as fine of Rs.10,000/ - and substantive sentence of one year was reduced to the sentence of till rising of the court. When this Criminal Revision Petition filed by the accused -petitioner Girdhari Lal came up before this court for hearing, the following facts were brought to the notice of this Court by the counsel for the petitioner. (1) That the trial court had imposed fine of Rs.2000/ - which was enhanced by the appellate court though there was no appeal for enhancement of fine by the State. Further, at that time before amendment of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the Judicial Magistrate, First Class could have imposed a fine of Rs.5000/ - only and so the appellate court was also not entitled to impose fine of Rs.10,000/ - in the appeal. Second proviso of section 386 Cr.PC, which is relevant, here reads as under: - ''Provided further that the Appellate Court shall not inflict greater punishment for the offence which in its opinion the accused has committed, than might have been inflicted for that offence by the Court passing the order of sentence under appeal ''.
(3.) IT has been argued that enhancement of fine could not have been made by the appellate court without issuing notice to the accused for this purpose and further the fine amount could have been enhanced only up to Rs.5000/ - and not up to Rs.10,000/ -.;