JUDGMENT

Srinivasan, J.-The main contention of the appellants is that the High Court has chosen to reverse the order of acquittal passed by the trial judge when the latter is not perverse or wholly unreasonable. In support of the same the decision in Tota Singh & Anr. v. State of Punjab1 is cited. A Bench of two judges has held that in an appeal against acquittal, the jurisdiction of the appellate court is circumscribed by the limitation that no interference is to be made with the order unless the approach made by the lower court to the consideration of evidence is vitiated by some manifest illegality or the conclusion recorded by the court below is such which could not have been possibly arrived at by any court acting reasonably and judiciously and is liable therefore to be characterised as perverse. It has also been held that where two views are possible and the view taken by the court below is plausible, the appellate court cannot legally interfere with an order of acquittal even if it is of the opinion that the view taken by the trial court is erroneous.

2. The power of the appellant court in an appeal against an order of acquittal was the subject of a decision of three member B