A bench of Justices Dipak Misra and R Banumathi set aside the verdict of the High Court of Judicature at Hyderabad for the State of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh which had reduced the sentence of the convict to 30 days, the period already undergone by him behind bars and restored it to one year jail term as awarded by a trial court.
"The approach of the High Court shocks us and we have no hesitation in saying so. When there is medical evidence that there was an acid attack on the young girl and the circumstances having brought home by cogent evidence and the conviction is given the stamp of approval, there was no justification to reduce the sentence to the period already undergone.
"We are at a loss to understand whether the learned Judge has been guided by some unknown notion of mercy or remaining oblivious of the precedents relating to sentence or for that matter, not careful about the expectation of the collective from the court, for the society at large eagerly waits for justice to be done in accordance with law, has reduced the sentence," the bench said.
Also Read
The High Court had upheld the conviction but reduced the sentence to the period already undergone by the convict behind bars, after which the victim approached the apex court contending that the period of custody suffered by the accused was a mere thirty days.
"We direct the accused to pay a compensation of Rs 50,000 and the State to pay a compensation of Rs 3 lakhs," it said.
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content