The appellate court reiterated that in appeals against acquittals, the presumption of innocence remains crucial, and the burden of proof lies heavily on the prosecution to establish guilt beyond reasonable doubt.

JUDGMENT/ORDER

Vinod Chandran,J.

Chandrappa and others v. State of Karnataka (2007 (4) SCC 415) restated the principles regarding the scope of the power of appellate Court to re-appreciate, review or reconsider evidence and interfere with an acquittal. The general principles were encapsulated in the following manner:

42. From the above decisions, in our considered view, the following general principles regarding powers of the appellate court while dealing with an appeal against an order of acquittal emerge:

(1) An appellate court has full power to review, re-

appreciate and reconsider the evidence upon which the order of acquittal is founded.

(2) The Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 puts no limitation, restriction or condition on exercise of such power and an appellate court on the evidence before it may reach its own conclusion, both on questions of fact and of law.

(3) Various expressions, such as, “substantial and compelling reasons”, “good and sufficient grounds”, “very strong circumstances”, “distorted conclusions”, “glaring mistakes”, etc. are not intended to curtail extensive powers of an appellate court in an appeal against acquittal. Such phraseologies are more in the nature of “flourishes of language” to emphasise the reluctance of an appellate court to interfere with acquittal than to curtail the power of the court to review the evidence and to come to its own conclusion.

(4) An appellate court, however, must bear in mind that in case of acquittal, there is double presumption in favour of the accused. Firstly, the presumption of innocence is available to him under the fundamental principle of criminal jurisprudence that every person shall be presumed to be innocent unless he is proved guilty by a competent court of law. Secondly, the accused having secured his acquittal, the presumption of his innocence is further reinforced, reaffirmed and strengthened by the Trial Court.

(5) If two reasonable conclusions are possible on the basis of the evidence on record, the appellate court should not disturb the finding of acquittal recorded by the Trial Court.

The appeal arises from the acquittal of the accused from the charge under Ss.143, 147, 148, 450, 323, 324, 326, 307 and 302 IPC r/w. Section 149 of . The allegation was that the first accused had enmity with the deceased regarding the theft of fishing net belonging to PW4, on which accusation there was an altercation and scuffle on the previous day between the first accused, the deceased and PW4. The accused then, formed themselves into an unlawful assembly and armed with deadly weapons like iron bars, rods, wooden reapers and logs, criminally trespassed into the house of Israel where the deceased and PW1 to 7 were involved in the discussion about the theft of a fishing net. The assailants assaulted the deceased and PW1 to PW7, inflicting blows with deadly weapons and by beating and hitting the witnesses. The 1st and 2nd accused inflicted blows upon the head and lower back of the deceased. Likewise, 3rd and 4th accused hit the deceased on the right leg, while the 5th accused inflicted a blow on the left leg of the deceased. The 2nd accused inflicted a blow upon the head of PW1 and 8th accused upon the foreleg of PW2 causing a fracture. The 4th accused also inflicted a blow upon the left side of the head of PW2, the 9th accused upon the forehead of PW3 who also sustained an injury from the blow inflicted by the 10th accused. The 8th and 11th accused hit the back side of the head of PW4 and PW5 sustained injuries from the attack of accused Nos. 8 and 9. PW6 sustained injuries at the hands of the 6th and 7th accused and PW7 at the hands of the 4th accused. The deceased tried to flee from the assailants, which attempt was thwarted by A1 to A5 who chased him and together brutally beat him on his head and various parts of the body, on the Pozhikkara road near to the residence of A1. All the injured were taken to the Neyyattinkara Taluk Hospital, from where the grievously injured d