TMI Blog2004 (11) TMI 565X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... are as under: Appellant No.1 was married to the deceased in the year 1990. She was employed in Railways and was regularly attending to her duties. Her parents also lived not far away from her matrimonial home. On 25.10.1995 she was found dead. The accused-husband had informed her parents of her death. It is the case of her mother that soon after the incident, a First Information Report was lodged with the police alleging harassment and cruel treatment to her by the accused. The said FIR has not been produced. The FIR which was produced was lodged on 22.12.1995 which led to the prosecution, and acquittal of the accused by the trial court. In the course of investigation a suicide note was seized from the mother-in-law of the deceased. The contents of the suicide note read that the deceased had developed illicit relationship with some other person and it was no longer possible for her to deceive her husband. It was further written in the suicide note that she was lucky to get such a husband and her father should treat him well and arrange for his second marriage after her death. In his post-mortem report the Autopsy Surgeon opined that the cause of death was poisoning and als ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ut the contents of the same. Taking together the contents of suicidal note and belated FIR I have reasons to hold that this FIR was lodged after two months by some wrong advice. Moreover, the explanation given in the FIR does not appear to be convincing. It is the settled principle that there is every possibility of concoction, embellishment, motivation in a belated FIR I have already observed that PW 8 has tried to develop the prosecution case by introducing some new stories which is far away from the prosecution case and, as such, she cannot be considered to be faithful witness. Moreover she has failed to explain by convincing reason about inordinate delay in lodging the FIR. Her evidence has not been corroborated by a single prosecution witness even. On the medical evidence, the trial court observes thus: That the Autopsy Surgeon had recorded that there was a ligature mark on her neck and the cause of death was indosulfan-poison in her body. On the evidence produced, the trial court has recorded his conclusion that evidence of cruel treatment to the deceased is not reliable and the accused cannot be held guilty of the suicidal death. The trial acquitted all of the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... y the High Court of directing a retrial. Reliance has been placed on K.Chinnaswamy Reddy vs. State of Andhra Pradesh [1963 (3) SCR 412 at 413] and particularly on the following observations mentioned therein on the scope of identical provisions of revision in the old Code of Criminal Procedure. That it was open to a High Court in revision and at the instance of a private party to set aside an order of acquittal though the State might not have appealed. But such jurisdiction should be exercised only in exceptional cases, as where a glaring defect in the procedure or a manifest error of law leading to a flagrant miscarriage of justice has taken place. When Section 439(4) of the Code forbids the High Court from converting a finding of acquittal into one of conviction, it is not proper that the High Court should do the same indirectly by ordering a retrial. It was not possible to lay down the criteria for by which to judge such exceptional cases. It was, however, clear that the High Court would be justified in interfering in cases such as (1) where the trial court had wrongly shut out evidence sought to be adduced by the prosecution (2) where the appeal court had wrongly held evidence ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ise of the discretionary jurisdiction under Article 136 of the Constitution and keeping in view the stage of retrial we refrain from upsetting the whole judgment of the High Court. We however consider it necessary to set right some of the uncalled for observations made by the High Court in the impugned judgment directing retrial. The cases cited by the learned counsel show the settled legal position that the revisional jurisdiction, at the instance of the complainant, has to be exercised by the High Court only in very exceptional cases where the High Court finds defect of procedure or manifest error of law resulting in flagrant miscarriage of justice. The State has chosen not to prefer any appeal against acquittal. In the present appeal by the complainant it has filed a counter-affidavit and tried to support the order of remand passed by the High Court. Without going into the correctness of all the observations made by the High Court in the impugned judgment, we find it necessary to clarify that the High Court ought not to have directed the trial court to hold a de novo trial and take decision on the basis of so called 'suggested formula.' The High Court in its con ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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