Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 – s. 378 – Appeal against acquittal – Matter pertaining to dispute over property between accused and the family of complainant – Accused assaulted the complainant and his family – Acquittal of all the accused by the trial court, however conviction for the offences punishable u/s. 304 Part I and s. 324/149 IPC by the High Court – Correctness:
Held: No findings recorded by the High Court after re-appreciating the evidence, no discussion about the testimony of eyewitnesses and no finding to indicate that the High Court considered the question whether the view taken by the trial court was a possible view – High Court held the accused guilty without recording any reasons and without recording any finding regarding the role played by the accused individually and collectively – Nothing stated as to who were the authors of the injuries sustained by deceased and injured witnesses – No finding as to how s.149 IPC attracted – Thus, the High Court, as an appellate court, while hearing the appeal against acquittal, has not done its duty – However, matter cannot be remanded back since the offence took place about two decades back – Findings of the trial court and evidence of eyewitnesses have been perused – Trial court was unable to accept the testimony of the witnesses after in-depth scrutiny – Conclusions recorded by the trial court were possible conclusions – Thus, the impugned judgment set aside – Penal Code, 1860 – ss. 304 Part I and 324/149 . [Paras 11-15]
Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 – s. 378 – Appeal against acquittal – Exercise of appellate jurisdiction while dealing with an appeal against acquittal u/s. 378 – General principles – Stated. [Paras 7 and 8]
Appeal against acquittal – Appreciation of evidence: Held: In many cases, the trial judge passing the order of acquittal has an occasion to record the oral testimony of all material witnesses – While deciding about the reliability of the version of prosecution witnesses, their demeanour remains in the back of the mind of the trial judge – Demeanour of a witness frequently furnishes a clue to the weight of his testimony – It has to be borne in mind while dealing with an appeal against acquittal. [Para 9]
LIST OF CITATIONS AND OTHER REFERENCES
Law of Evidence by Sarkar – referred to.
OTHER CASE DETAILS INCLUDING IMPUGNED
ORDER AND APPEARANCES
As published in the Supreme Court Reports, Supreme Court of India. Text from the Indian Supreme Court Judgments open data set (Dattam Labs), CC BY 4.0.
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