IMPORTANT POINT
The High Court failed to keep in view the well-settled principles of administration of criminal justice laid down by Apex Court in this case and reversed the well reasoned acquittal recorded by trial Court without dislodging the reasons given by the trial Court.

Headnote:(i) Indian Penal Code, 1860-Section 302 or 302/34-Appeal against reversal of acquittal by High Court-Charge framed u/s 302 IPC-Conviction recorded u/s 302/34 IPC by High Court-Motive of strained relations not proved-Alleged injuries by eye witnesses not supported by medical evidence making their presence doubtful-FIR not supported by identification parade-Time of incident under doubt-Doubt of participation of Appellant No. 3-Whether trial Court was right in recording acquittal? (Yes).
       Held : Thus, taking the overall view based on the totality of the evidence and cumulative effect of the same, the trial court held that the prosecution failed to prove the accused guilty beyond all reasonable doubt and in our view rightly so in the light of the material placed on record and reasons given. (Para 9)
       Held further : It is unfortunate that by the impugned order, the High Court has upset the well-reasoned order of acquittal passed by the trial court. It appears to us that the High Court while doing so, did not bear in mind the well-settled principles stated above as to what should be the approach in reversing an order of acquittal and under what circumstances it should be reversed. (Para 13)
       Held finally : From what is stated above, we are clearly of the opinion that the High Court committed a serious error in disturbing the order of acquittal recorded by the trial court that too without dislodging the reasons given by the trial court. Assuming one other view was possible, that itself was no ground to interfere with the order of acquittal unless it was shown that the appreciation of evidence by the trial court was either perverse or untenable and that in ordering acquittal, the trial court either ignored material evidence or that the view taken by it was patently untenable. The High Court strangely convicts the appellants by taking aid of Section 34 IPC. The case was registered in the police station for an offence under Section 302 IPC. The appellants were tried for the charge under Section 302 IPC only. The evidence of PW-6, doctor, clearly shows that no injuries were found on the legs of the deceased attributable to appellants 1 and 2. The cause of death given by him was because of the injuries attributed to appellant No. 3. As per the prosecution case itself, appellants 1 and 2 had gone first to the scene of occurrence and after the heated exchange, they picked up the sticks from the fence on the spot and assaulted the deceased. Appellant No. 3 came later and assaulted the deceased with a crow-bar. There is absolutely nothing on record to show that appellants 1 to 3 had any pre-meditation or any intention to cause death of the deceased. It is also not shown that how appellant no. 3 was concerned with the appellants 1 and 2. Nobody speaks about the common intention of the appellants to kill the deceased. With all this, strangely, the High Court convicts the appellants for an offence under Section 302 IPC taking the aid of Section 34 IPC. This finding of the High Court is patently unsustainable. In the light of aforementioned reasons and discussions and to do substantial justice, the impugned judgment and order is set aside and that of the trial court is restored. The appellants be set at liberty forthwith if they are not required in any other case. The appeal is ordered accordingly. (Paras 16, 17 & 18)
       (ii) Principles to be kept in mind in the Administration of Criminal Justice in India.
       Held : In our administration of criminal justice an accused is presumed to be innocent unless such a presumption is rebutted by the prosecution by producing the evidence to show him to be guilty of the offence with which he is charged. Further if two views are possible on the evidence produced in the case, one indicating to the guilt of the accused and the other to his innocence, the view favourable to the accused is to be accepted. In cases where the court entertains reasonable doubt regarding the guilt of the accused the benefit of such doubt should go in favour of the accused. At the same time, the court must not reject the evidence of the prosecution taking it as false, untrustworthy or unreliable on fanciful grounds or on the basis of conjectures and surmises. The case of the prosecution must be judged as a whole having regard to the totality of the evidence. In appreciating the evidence the approach of the court must be integrated not truncated or isolated. In other words, the impact of evidence in totality on the prosecution case or innocence of accused has to be kept in mind in coming the conclusion as to the guilt or otherwise of the accused. In reaching a conclusion about the guilt of the accused, the court has to appreciate, analyse and assess the evidence placed before it by the yardstick of probabilities, its intrinsic value and the animus of witnesses. It must be added that ultimately and finally the decision in every case depends upon the facts of each case. Doubtless the High Court in appeal either against an order of acquittal or conviction as a court of first appeal has full power to review the evidence to reach its own independent conclusion. However, it will not interfere with an order of acquittal lightly or merely because one other view is possible, because with the passing of an order of acquittal presumption of innocence in favour of the accused gets reinforced and strengthened. The High Court would not be justified to interfere with order of acquittal merely because it feels that sitting as a trial court would have proceeded to record a conviction; a duty is cast on the High Court while reversing an order of acquittal to examine and discuss the reasons given by the trial court to acquit the accused and then to dispel those reasons. If the High Court fails to make such an exercise the judgment will suffer from serious infirmity. (Paras 11 & 12)

JUDGMENT

Shivaraj V. Patil, J.-In this appeal, the appellants are assailing the judgment of the High Court by which the order of acquittal passed by the trial court was set aside and they were convicted for the offence under Section 302 read with Section 34 IPC and sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life.

2. In brief, according to the prosecution, the deceased Kuruva Naganna purchased a house site from one Harijana Madanna and erected a kottam and was running a hotel in it. Appellants 1 and 2 are the neighbours of the deceased. The deceased desired to sell the said site owing to losses sustained by him in running the hotel. Appellants 1 and 2 insisted that he should sell the site to them and threatened him that he should not sell the same to others except them. Thus, there were ill-feelings between the deceased and appellants 1 and 2. On 17.7.1991, while the deceased, PWs 1 and 2, wife and daughter respectively, were in their kottam, the third parties came to see the site in order to purchase it and proposed to come the next day to settle the bargain. Appellants 1 & 2 came there at about 6.00 p.m. and questioned the deceased as to why he proposed to sell the said site to others ignoring them. The deceased asserted that he had every right to sell the site to any person of his choice, being its owner. On this, there were exchange of words between the deceased and the appellants 1 and 2. In the meanwhile, appellants 1 and 2 picked up sticks and beat the deceased on his knees. The deceased fell down after receiving injuries. Thereafter, the appellant No. 3 came armed with crow-bar and beat the deceased three or four times on his head. The incident was witnessed by PWs 1 and 2. After assaulting the deceased, the appellants left the scene of offence with their weapons. PW-3, son of the deceased, had gone for Hamali work. After coming to know about the incident, PW-4, the mother of the deceased, rushed to the scene and PWs 1 and 2 narrated about the incident to her. At about 9.00 p.m. PW-3 came there and found the dead body of his father lying on the road near the house and he was told about the incident by PWs 1 and 2. Thereafter, PWs 1 to 3 proceeded to Kallur police station where PW-1 orally reported about the occurrence to PW-7, the Sub-Inspector of Police, at about 10.30 p.m. The report was reduced into writing and a case as Crime No. 70/91 was registered under Section 302 IPC. After the completion of investigation, a charge-sheet was filed.

3. The learned Sessions Judge, on the basis of material placed on record, framed charge against all the appellants under Section 302 IPC and tried them for the said offence. The trial court, after appreciating the evidence brought before it and looking to the infirmities appearing in the case, concluded that the prosecution could not bring home the guilt of the accused beyond reasonable doubt. In that view, not finding the accused guilty under Section 302 IPC, giving them benefit of doubt, acquitted them.

4. The State filed appeal before the High Court challenging the order of acquittal made by the learned Sessions Judge. The High Court by the impugned judgment upset the order of acquittal made by the trial court. The High Court disagreed with the reasons given and findings recorded by the learned Sessions Judge and found the appellants guilty of committing offence punishable under Section 302 read with Section 34 IPC and consequently sentenced them to undergo imprisonment for life. The appellants, being aggrieved by the impugned judgment and order, have approached this Court in the appeal.

5. The learned counsel for the appellants urged that the High Court manifestly erred in setting aside the well-considered order of acquittal passed by the trial court; the order of acquittal could not be disturbed merely because the High Court could take a different view when it was not shown that either reasons recorded or appreciation of evidence by

Click Here to Read the rest of this document

2002 Supreme(SC) 747

IMPORTANT POINTThe High Court failed to keep in view the well-settled principles of administration of criminal justice laid down by Apex Court in this case and reversed the well reasoned acquittal recorded by trial Court without dislodging the reasons given by the trial Court.

IMPORTANT POINT
The High Court failed to keep in view the well-settled principles of administration of criminal justice laid down by Apex Court in this case and reversed the well reasoned acquittal recorded by trial Court without dislodging the reasons given by the trial Court.