"If you can't walk, you can be carried to jail": Supreme Court refuses to extend time for convict to surrender

The Supreme Court was on Monday unimpressed by a convict's plea to extend the time given to him to surrender before a trial court for imprisonment on the ground that he was not in a position to walk [Mohammad Umeedullah Khan v. State of Telangana]..Advocate BF Lzafeer Ahmad appeared for the petitioner (who has challenged his conviction before the Supreme Court) and submitted that he is unable to walk properly. He said that there were medical reports to show that the petitioner was suffering from paralysis in his legs.However, the vacation Bench of Justices PV Sanjay Kumar and Augustine George Masih pointed out that such a condition is no excuse to evade imprisonment.A miffed Justice Kumar orally remarked that in jail, one has to sit and not walk."You are saying that you are unable to walk and that is why you want extension. How can this be the reason? In jail, you have to sit and not walk," Justice Kumar observed.The Bench eventually made it clear that it was not inclined to interfere with a May 21 order that had granted petitioner two weeks of time to surrender."Once this court had said that you have to surrender in two weeks, then you have to surrender. If you cannot walk, you can be carried to jail. This is no reason to seek extension of time to surrender. You can be transported, there is no need to walk," Justice Kumar added..The petitioner, who was a B.Tech student at the time of the incident, had been booked for firing a gun at another college student in 2007 after they had an altercation.In 2013, a trial court convicted him under Sections 307 (attempt to murder) of the Indian Penal Code and under Sections 25 (1-A) and 27 of the Arms Act of 1959. The trial court sentenced him to ten years of imprisonment and also ordered him to pay a fine.On April 30 this year, the Telangana High Court upheld the trial court's conviction, which was then challenged before the Supreme Court. This appeal is yet to be decided by the Supreme Court. However, on May 21, the petitioner's counsel assured a Bench of Justices Bela M Trivedi and Pankaj Mithal that the petitioner would surrender before the trial court within two weeks. Having recorded this undertaking, the Court posted the appeal for hearing in July 2024.An application was then preferred by the convict seeking extension of time for surrender, which was dismissed today.