Suspending sentence of Ansal brothers would erode faith of public in judicial system: Delhi High Court

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday held that suspending the sentence of the Ansal brothers in the evidence-tampering case related to the Uphaar Cinema Fire tragedy would amount to eroding the public's faith in the judicial system [Sushil Ansal vs. State of NCT of Delhi]..Justice Subramonium Prasad said that Sushil and Gopal Ansal were convicted of the extremely serious offence of tampering with court records. The manner in which it was done was insidious in nature, revealing a well-planned methodical attempt at subverting the judicial system in order to reap the benefits and escape conviction in the Uphaar case, he added.“This Court is of the opinion that suspending the sentence of the Petitioners would, therefore, amount to eroding the faith of the public in the judicial system as it would entail allowing convicts, whose finding of guilt has already been established, to take advantage of the passage of time as well as the judiciary as an institution,” the single-judge held..The Court noted that petitioners were convicted of tampering with evidence that was in judicial custody, and if it had not been brought to the notice of the Court, it would have had the effect of interfering with the administration of justice.“In the facts of the present case and especially keeping in mind the nature of offence, it cannot be said that the Order of the Ld. Appellate Court, in not suspending the sentence of the Petitioners herein during the pendency of the Appeal, is perverse or requires to be interfered with. The Order of the Ld. Appellate Court is well-considered and comprehensive, and does not suffer from any patent infirmity,” Justice Prasad said.The Court rejected the argument raised by the counsel appearing for the petitioners regarding their age. The Bench said that while age should be one of the factors to be taken into consideration while deciding an application under Section 389 of the Criminal Procedure Code, it cannot be a criterion at this stage in the present petition, in view of the conspiracy to delay the trial.“Moreover, this Court has gone through the medical documents of the Petitioners and it has found that the condition of the Petitioners is not that serious that it should justify the sentence of the Petitioners being suspended. In any event, there are jail hospitals and, in case of any emergency, there are referral hospitals as well. This Court does not deem it appropriate to allow the Petitioners herein to take advantage of their own wrongs,” the Court added.While Sushil Ansal is 83 years old, Gopal Ansal is aged about 73 years..Considering the gravity of the crime and the allegations involved, the High Court requested the lower courts to expedite the hearing of the appeals, and to decide the same in a month to ensure that the faith of the people in the judicial system is not eroded. The Court concluded,“This Court is of the view that cases of this nature should be heard and decided at the earliest as any delay in dealing with the same will only make people lose faith in the cherished institution, that is the judiciary. The Petitioners herein inhabit the stigma of desecrating the temple of justice and a quietus needs to be put to the same. If they are ultimately found to be innocent in the instant case, this stigma has to be removed at the earliest. Considering this fact, the Ld. Appellate Court is requested to expedite and complete the hearing of the appeals filed by the Petitioners herein within a period of one month from the date of this Order and, if necessary, conduct day-to-day hearings for the same, and to expeditiously pronounce the judgement after concluding the hearing of the appeals filed by the Petitioners herein.”.The Court, however, allowed co-accused Anoop Singh Karayat’s petition on the ground that he was not arrested during the trial, and that he was above 70 years of age. His sentence was suspended during the pendency of the appeal on the condition that he furnish a personal bond of ₹1 lakh, with two sureties of the like amount..Sushil Ansal was represented by Senior Advocate Arvind Nigam along with Advocates Tanveer Ahmed Mir, Dhruv Gupta, Vaibhav Suri, Shivaz Berry and Siddharth Kashyap.Senior Advocates Abhishek Manu Singhvi, N Hariharan and Pramod Dubey, along with Advocates Amit Bhandari, Vikas Aggarwal, Nishaank Mattoo, Avishkar Singhvi, Siddharth Singh Yadav and Vikalp Sharma appeared for Gopal Ansal.The State was represented by Senior Advocate Dayan Krishnan and Advocates Amit Chadha, Manvi Priya, AT Ansari, Sanjeevi Seshadri and Sukrit Seth.The complainant in the case was represented by Senior Advocate Vikas Pahwa and Advocate Raavi Sharma..[Read Judgments]