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TMI Blog2025 (1) TMI 1536X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... September 2006 passed by the learned Sessions Judge, Dehradun [Hereinafter referred to as the 'trial court']. The first set of appeals before the High Court being Criminal Appeal Nos. 217 of 2006 and 218 of 2006 challenging the judgment and order of the trial court had been preferred by accused No.1-Jagdish Singh by which he had been convicted for the offence punishable under Section 302 read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 [For short 'IPC'] and Section 27(1) of the Arms Act, 1959 [For short 'Arms Act] and sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life. The second set of appeal being Government Appeal No. 100 of 2008 before the High Court was filed by the respondent-State of Uttarakhand against the present appellants namely, Constable 907 Surendra Singh, Constable 192 Surat Singh and Ashad Singh Negi (accused Nos. 4, 2 and 3 respectively) challenging the said judgment of the trial court by which they had been acquitted of the charges under Section 302 read with Section 34 of the IPC. 2. The High Court dismissed the first set of criminal appeals preferred by accused No.1-Jagdish Singh thereby confirming the judgment and order of conviction and sentence passed by the tria ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... , when the complainant failed to comply, a bullet came to be fired by one of the occupants of the Indica car. The said bullet hit the wife of the complainant on her temporal region. Upon the occurrence of the incident, a crowd gathered at the spot and the complainant was informed by the onlookers that one of the occupants of the Indica car was Jagdish Singh who was posted as Head Constable at Police Station, Rishikesh. With the aid of the assembled bystanders, the complainant took his wife to Government Hospital, Rishikesh, where she was declared 'brought dead'. 3.3 Thereafter, the complainant went to lodge a complaint at Police Station Kotwali, Rishikesh where he saw the Indica car parked within the premises of the Police Station. He telephoned his brother Rajeev who arrived at the Police Station with their uncles Jugal Kishore and Vijay Chauhan. On the basis of the complaint dictated by the complainant and scribed by Vijay Chauhan, a First Information Report being Case Crime No. 455 of 2004 was registered at the aforesaid Police Station against Head Constable Jagdish Singh and other unknown police constables for the offence punishable under Section 302 of the IPC. 3.4 The dead ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... 2013 admitted Criminal Appeal Nos. 355 of 2013 and 788 of 2013 and granted bail to the appellants in both the appeals. 5. During the hearing of the appeals, we were informed that Head Constable Jagdish Singh had passed away. Accordingly, on 16th January 2025 Criminal Appeal Nos. 1425-1426 of 2015, preferred by him, were disposed of as abated. 6. We have heard Mr. Devadatt Kamat, learned senior counsel appearing on behalf of the appellants and Mr. Rajeev Kumar Dubey, learned counsel appearing on behalf of the respondent-State. 7. Mr. Devadatt Kamat submits that the Division Bench of the High Court has grossly erred in convicting the appellants with the aid of Section 34 of the IPC. It is submitted that the learned trial judge on an elaborate consideration of the evidence had come to a considered opinion that insofar as the present appellants are concerned there is no evidence to show that the present appellants had shared a common intention with the accused No.1-Jagdish Singh. It is submitted that the allegation of alleged assault made by Sanjeev Chauhan, PW-1 (husband of the deceased) and Km. Bharti, PW-2 (sister-in-law of the deceased) in their evidence for the first time befo ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... 2. 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, reappreciate and reconsider the evidence upon which the order of acquittal is founded. (2) The Criminal Procedure Code, 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 i ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... cused is possible from the evidence available on record." 12. It could thus be seen that it is a settled legal position that the interference with the finding of acquittal recorded by the learned trial judge would be warranted by the High Court only if the judgment of acquittal suffers from patent perversity; that the same is based on a misreading/omission to consider material evidence on record; and that no two reasonable views are possible and only the view consistent with the guilt of the accused is possible from the evidence available on record. 13. In the instant case, the learned trial judge on the basis of ocular testimony of the eyewitnesses has held that the accused No.1-Jagdish Singh is guilty of the offence punishable under Section 302/34 IPC as well as under Section 27(1) of the Arms Act. Since the appeal of the said accused No.1-Jadgish Singh is disposed of as abated, we did not go into the findings against the said accused. 14. The learned trial judge while recording the finding of acquittal insofar as the present appellants are concerned, has come to the following conclusions: (i) That these three accused (appellants herein) were in the car and the accused No.1 ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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