Kochi: The Kerala High Court has held that if a person is undergoing a jail term, but not imprisonment for life, and he has been subsequently convicted in another case to imprisonment for any term or imprisonment for life, he should serve both the sentences unless there is a court order. Justice Raja Vijayaraghavan made the observation while considering a petition filed by a robbery case accused Samuel currently lodged in Viyyur central prison. The court observed that there must be an order of the court for the subsequent sentence to run concurrently with the previous sentence in the petitioner's case.
“Having regard to the conviction of Samuel on two distinct and different offences committed on two different dates and also the fact that the trial court which had tried the accused for a crime committed in 2008, despite noticing the fact that he was convicted in a crime happened in 1995, did not pass an order for a concurrent sentence, the petitioner is not entitled for a relief,” the court observed.
Samuel was convicted for 10-year rigorous imprisonment by Assistant Sessions Court (Principal), Palakkad, and a jail term of 14 years by Additional District and Sessions Court, Fast Tract-I, Thrissur. Samuel submitted before the court that he has already undergone a sentence of six years nine months and two days of imprisonment as on December 9, 2015. It is also reported that the conduct and character of the petitioner inside the prison was good and no disciplinary action has been initiated against him till date. At present he is aged 54 and is having age-related ailments. His wife is living alone as his children have been married off. It is also pointed out that the wife of the petitioner is having various ailments.
