Supreme Court sentences Navjot Singh Sidhu to 1 year of imprisonment

Navjot Singh Sidhu often makes it to the headlines for some or the other reason. But today he is again in the headlines as the Supreme Court has enhanced the sentence of the Congress leader to one-year rigorous imprisonment in a 1988 road rage accident in which one person had died. Reportedly a petition had been filed by the family of the victim Gurnam Singh against its 2018 verdict that had reduced the sentence of Sidhu to Rs 1000 from 3 years imprisonment in the case. And after the review of the petition, the Supreme Court has now enhanced a sentence of Sidhu to one-year imprisonment.

According to reports in Livelaw.in, a bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar and Kishan Kaul allowed the review petition filed by the family of victim. “We have allowed review application on the issue of sentence. In addition of fine imposed, we impose a sentence of imprisonment one one year to be undergone by respondent 1 (Sidhu),” Live Law quoted Justice Kaul as saying in the operative part of the judgment.

The petition — filed by the victim’s family — sought a review of the top court’s May 15, 2018 order by which it set aside the Punjab and Haryana High Court order convicting Sidhu of culpable homicide and sentencing him to a three-year jail term. It held him guilty of the offence under Section 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) of the IPC and let him off only with a fine of Rs 1,000.