A Divison Bench of the Delhi High Court comprising of Justice Siddharth Mridul and Anup J Bhambhani has directed a convict to work at an animal care centre for violating the condition of suspension of his sentence by travelling away from Delhi when he was ordered to not leave the city.

The Bench stated that it was not inclined to cancel the bail of the person as he was forthright enough to admit that he travelled to Rampur and did not commit any other offence.

However, in order to atone for the breach of the condition of suspension of sentence, we direct the appellant to render service gratuitously at the Sanjay Gandhi Animal Care Centre, Raja Garden, New Delhi (near Shivaji College and Delhi Home Guards Head Office) for three weeks beginning December 6, 2021, between 01.00 p.m. and 04.00 p.m. every working day, by performing whatever tasks he is assigned by the Head of the Animal Care Centre, the Bench said in its order dated November 30.

The Court directed the head of the animal care shelter to assign such work as may be deemed appropriate and file a brief report indicating compliance with the order by the man who undertook to abide by the direction.

The man claimed that he travelled to Rampur to visit a certain shrine to fulfil his mother's wishes and pay obeisance upon his release on bail and urged the court to take a lenient view of a harmless breach.

The prosecution said although the man did travel out of Delhi in breach of one of the conditions of suspension of sentence, there is no allegation that he indulged in any other illegal activity.

It was said that and in fact, he has reported scrupulously to the concerned police station to mark his presence in compliance with such condition of regular bail.


With PTI input