Nagaraj Reddy vs State of Tamil Nadu

Court

Supreme Court of India

Date

21 March 2023

Case No.

Criminal Appeal No. 886 of 2023

Result

Allowed

Bench

Bhushan Ramkrishna Gavai, Vikram Nath

Citation

[2023] 14 S.C.R. 457 : 2023 INSC 269

Issue for consideration

Concurrent conviction of the appellantaccused No.1 for offences punishable u/ss.302, 341 IPC primarily on the basis of evidence of PW-1, an interested witness, if justified. Evidence – Interested witness – Previous enmity – Conviction based solely on the testimony of interested witness, without corroboration of such testimony – Legality:

Headnote

Held: PW-1 is an interested witness, being the brother of the deceased – He admitted that there existed previous enmity between the parties wherein the deceased and his wife-PW-3 were injured after a scuffle between the parties and the trial with regard to that incident was ongoing – Previous enmity is a double-edged sword – On the one hand, it provides for the motive and on the other hand, the possibility of false implication cannot be ruled out – PW-1 was found to be unreliable by the trial court insofar as the other accused are concerned, except accused Nos.1 and 3 – Other witnesses, including PW-3, wife of the deceased, only stated that all of the accused persons came to their home in the village and exhorted that they had killed the deceased – On the basis of very same evidence, all the accused, except accused No.1-appellant and accused No.3 were acquitted by the trial court – High Court disbelieved the testimony of PW-1 insofar as accused No.3 is concerned and he was acquitted on the ground that he was arrested by the police within few days after the incident (which happened on 14.09.2004), whereas the arrest is shown on 22.09.2004 – Reasoning given by the High Court in distinguishing the case of the present appellant as against accused No.3 is totally perfunctory– Appellant’s conviction could not have been based solely on the testimony of PW-1, without corroboration – Impugned judgment quashed and set aside – Appellant acquitted of all the charges levelled against him – Penal Code, 1860 – ss.302, 341. [Paras 9-13, 15, 16 and 18] LIST OF CITATIONS AND OTHER REFERENCES

Khema alias Khem Chandra etc. vs. State of Uttar Pradesh 2022 SCC-OnLine SC 991: Vadivelu Thevar vs. State of Madras [1957] SCR

981 – relied on.

OTHER CASE DETAILS INCLUDING IMPUGNED

ORDER AND APPEARANCES

JUDGMENT / ORDER OF THE SUPREME COURT JUDGMENT B. R. GAVAI, J. 1. This appeal challenges the judgment and order dated 31st March 2022, passed by the High Court of Judicature at Madras in Criminal Appeal No. 34 of 2019, wherein the High Court dismissed the appeal preferred by accused No. 1, appellant herein, against the judgment and order of conviction dated 20th December 2018, passed by the Additional District and Sessions Judge, Hosur (hereinafter referred to as ‘trial court’), in S. C. No. 7 of 2007, for the offences punishable under Sections 302 and 341 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (fo

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