IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION

CRIMINAL APPEAL NO. 1517   OF 2009 [Arising out of SLP(Crl.) No. 1824/2009]

  SANJEEV KUMAR ... APPELLANT(S)

:VERSUS:

  STATE OF HARYANA ... RESPONDENT(S)

O R D E R

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.

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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.

.....................J (DALVEER BHANDARI)

.....................J   (Dr. MUKUNDAKAM SHARMA)    NEW DELHI, AUGUST 13, 2009.