Leave granted.
Learned counsel for the appellant places
reliance on the judgment of this Court in Bhoop Ram v.
State of U.P., (1989) 3 SCC 1, which has been
consistently followed by this Court in various
decisions rendered subsequently.
Our attention has been drawn to a latest
decision of this Court in Vineet Kumar Gupta @
Dharminder v. State of Punjab, (Crl.A. No. 475/2009),
decided on 6.3.2009, wherein the accused being a
juvenile on the date of occurrence had attained
majority and hence he was not sent to a Special Home.
In the instant case, the appellant was 15½ years
of age on the date of commission of the offence and now
he should be about 26-27 years of age. In this view of
the matter and also in view of the aforesaid judgment,
the appellant cannot be sent to the Special Home now.
The conviction of the appellant is maintained
but his sentence is reduced to the period already
undergone by him. We order accordingly.
The appellant is presently in the District Jail,
Kurukshetra, Haryana. He is directed to be released
forthwith if not required in connection with any other
case.
This appeal is partly allowed in aforementioned
terms.