SC slams Uttarakhand govt over 'frivolous' appeal

A bench of Justices Dinesh Maheshwari and Vikram Nath of the Supreme Court slammed the Uttarakhand government for filing a "frivolous" appeal. The appeal challenged the reduction of sentence of a man in a case of attempted murder by the high court in its order dated August 20, 2020. The high court maintained conviction of the accused of offences under Sections 307/34 (attempt to murder, common intention) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 25 of the Arms Act but reduced the sentence in relation to the offence under Sections 307/34 IPC to rigorous imprisonment of four years and five months instead of seven years and also reduced the fine amount to ₹ 15,000 instead of ₹ 20,000.

The bench noted that the counsel for the accused did not challenge the conviction before the Uttarakhand High Court. They only argued for reduction of sentence and the lawyer for the State did not oppose the prayer.

The Supreme Court dismissed the petition filed by the state government. It further warned the State that any other attempt of frivolous litigation in court may be visited with penalisation of the officers responsible for sanctioning.

"It is rather disturbing to note that in such a matter, where the State's counsel before the high court did not even oppose the prayer for reduction of sentence and the high court made slight modification in the sentence considering the facts and circumstances of the case in totality, the State has chosen to approach this court seeking special leave to appeal without any justification.The present petition could only be said to be a frivolous litigation by the State," the bench said in its October 20 order.