Justice Dipak Misra held the hearing in chamber on Wednesday on his lawyers’ plea that the Goa Bench of the Bombay High Court had directed him to surrender within two weeks which expires on July 31.
“Applications seeking exemption from surrendering stand allowed,” Justice Misra said in the order notified by the Court registry on Thursday. He also ordered listing of the matter before the appropriate Bench of the Apex Court.
Recounting the case, the order says Pacheco had been convicted by the trial court under Section 353 of IPC and sentenced to one year’s imprisonment plus fine of Rs 5,000 or further simple imprisonment for a period of one month.
The order noted that the High Court had reduced the sentence to a 6-month jail and a fine of Rs 1500 while Pacheco has come to the Supreme Court against the High Court directing him to surrender within two weeks.
It may be recalled that Margao’s additional sessions judge had convicted Pacheco on December 13, 2012 for assaulting a junior engineer of the Electricity Department in 2006 but released him with admonition, giving him benefit under the Probation of Offenders Act. The Goa Bench of the High Court, however, quashed the order releasing him on probation on July 17 and ordered Pacheco to surrender within two weeks, rejecting his counsel’s plea to give him a month to surrender.
