IMPORTANT POINT
High Courts are under statutory obligation not to interfere at the initial stage of framing the charge merely on hypothesis, imagination and far-fetched reasons which in law amounts to interdicting the trial against the accused persons as has been done by a learned Single Judge of Delhi High Court in this case.

Headnote:Indian Penal Code, 1860-Sections 302, 147, 148 and 149-Accused persons charged under-Approached High Court-High Court quashing charges on the basis of post mortem report-Appeal against-Whether High Court was right? (No)-Appeal allowed-High Court criticised-Case Law discussed (Cr.P.C., 1973-Sections 227, 228-Evidence Act, 1872-Section 32).
       Held : The impugned order not only reflects the non application of mind by the learned Single Judge of the High Court while discharging the respondents for the offence punishable under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code but also demonstrates the ignoring of the correct position of law applicable on the point and catena of judgments pronounced by this Court on the subject. (Para 2)
       The trial court, in the instant case, rightly held that merely on account of the observations and the opinion incorporated in the post-mortem report, the prosecution could not be deprived of its right, to prove that accused were guilty of the offence for which the final report had been filed against them. There was no ground for the High Court to interfere with the well reasoned order of the trial court by passing a cryptic and telegraphic order which is impugned in this appeal. It is not safe, at this stage, to deprive the prosecution in proving its case on the basis of the direct evidence, the statement of the deceased claimed to be admissible under Section 32 of the Evidence Act and the other documents including the inquest report allegedly disclosing the infliction of injuries on the person of the deceased which resulted in his death. The acceptance of the opinion of the doctors, as incorporated in the post-mortem report for the cause of death of the deceased being "hepatic failure following riral hapatites" cannot be accepted on its face value at this initial stage. We allow this appeal by setting aside the order of the High Court and upholding the order of the trial court. We would again remind the High Courts of their statutory obligation to not to interfere at the initial stage of framing the charges merely on hypothesis, imagination and far-fetched reasons which in law amount to interdicting the trial against the accused persons. Unscrupulous litigants should be discouraged from protracting the trial and preventing culmination of the criminal cases by having resort to uncalled for and unjustified litigation under the cloak of technicalities of law. It is, however, made clear that while deciding the instant case finally, the trial Court will not be influenced by any of the observations made by us for the limited purposes of finding out the existence of a prima facie case against the accused, which is allowed to proceed against them in the trial court. (Paras 10, 11 and 12)

JUDGMENT

Sethi, J.-Leave granted.

2. The present case reflects and demonstrates the abuse of the process of the court by the accused persons who have succeeded in protracting the commencement of trial against them for about a decade. The accused have left no stone unturned to exploit the procedural wrangles to defeat the ends of justice. A learned Single Judge of the High Court of the Delhi appears to have fallen a prey to the procrastinative designs of the accused-respondent, as is evident from the cryptic order passed on 29th August, 2000 which is impugned in this appeal by special leave filed by the mother of the deceased after seeking permission from this Court. The impugned order not only reflects the non application of mind by the learned Single Judge of the High Court while discharging the respondents for the offence punishable under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code but also demonstrates the ignoring of the correct position of law applicable on the point and catena of judgments pronounced by this Court on the subject.

3. The facts of the case are that in an occurrence which took place on 6.9.1991, Rajesh Kumar, the son of the appellant was beaten to death by the accused persons who were alleged to have attacked him with weapons like Hockey Sticks, Lathis and Iron Chain of Bullet Motorcycle. The accused persons are stated to have been arrested after some days and their application for bail was dismissed by the trial court on 23rd December, 1991. The Additional Sessions Judge, being the trial court framed charges against all the accused persons on 16.7.1992 against which a petition was filed in the High Court. It is not clear but it is admitted that meanwhile the accused were released on bail by the High Court. The Criminal Revision No.97 of 1992 filed by the respondents was disposed of by the High Court after four years by quashing charges framed with direction to the trial court to pass "an order delineating reasons in sufficient detail to lend assurance to the accused, the public and the court that sufficient judicial thought is at its back". Again on 4.2.1998, the trial court, as per a detailed order directed the framing of charges against the accused persons under Sections 302, 147, 148 read with Section 149 of the Indian Penal Code. The accused respondents who were on bail again ventured to accomplish their design of frustrating the judicial process by filing a Revision Petition No. 87 of 1998 which has been disposed of by the High Court as per the following order:

"Head learned counsel for the petitioners as also learned counsel for the State and perused the documents on record, in particular, the post-mortem report, I am of the view that the charge under Section 302 IPC cannot be made out. In this view of the matter, I quash the charge framed under Section 302 IPC and direct the trial court to re-frame the charge in accordance with law based upon material on record. The revision petition is allowed."

4. While issuing notice on 11.12.2000, we suspended the impugned order of the High Court and directed the trial court to proceed with the case. We further directed the trial court to permit the counsel of the mother of the deceased to assist the Public Prosecutor if any application is filed in that behalf.

5. Justifying the impugned order Shri Ranjit Kumar, learned Senior Counsel argued that as there was no evidence, worth the name to connect the accused with the commission of the crime, the High Court was justified in passing the order. He, however, was frank in conceding that the order passed by the High Court was not a speaking order. It was contended on behalf of the accused persons that as the post-mortem report did not indicate any head injury on the deceased and the doctors had further opined that "the death in this case is possibly by hepatic failure following riral hapatites", there was no necessity of putting the accused to trial. Learned counsel, however, has been very c

Click Here to Read the rest of this document

2001 Supreme(SC) 495

Cases Referred (5)