9911796707
TMI Blog2024 (6) TMI 1453X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... .P. 5 The appellant/complainant is a married lady, aged 33 years. According to the appellant, the respondent No. 2 had physical relations with her, on the pretext of marriage and promise to give her a job. Accordingly, the appellant lodged an FIR as against the respondent No. 2 alleging various offences. 6 After investigation, charge-sheet was filed in the said case. Since the offences were triable by the Court of Sessions, the case came to be transferred to the Court of Sessions for trial. 7 The prosecution essentially relied on the evidence of PW1 i.e. the appellant; PW2-Kishore Dange, Medical Officer, Civil Hospital, Malegaon, who examined PW1 after FIR was registered; PW3-Kishore Kadam, the landlord of the premises, where the appellant and respondent No.2 were staying; PW4- Yuvraj More, a neighbour, where the appellant and respondent No.2 were residing; PW5-Sandip Gaikwad (hostile); PW6-Anil Jain, a neighbour of the appellant and respondent No.2; PW7Vinod Sonawane, also a neighbour of the appellant and respondent No.2 and PW8-Rahul Patil, the Investigating Officer. 8 The learned trial Judge, after considering the evidence on record, acquitted the respondent No. 2 of all the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... gh Court's powers in dealing with criminal appeals are equally wide whether the appeal in question is one against acquittal or against conviction. That is one aspect of the question. The other aspect of the question centres round the approach which the High Court adopts in dealing with appeals against orders of acquittal. In dealing with such appeals, the High Court naturally bears in mind the presumption of innocence in favour of an accused person and cannot lose sight of the fact that the said presumption is strengthened by the order of acquittal passed in his favour by the trial court and so, the fact that the accused person is entitled for the benefit of a reasonable doubts will always be present in the mind of the High Court when its deals with the merits of the case. As an appellate court the High Court is generally slow in disturbing the finding of fact recorded by the trial court particularly when the said finding is based on an appreciation of oral evidence because the trial court has the advantage of watching the demeanour of the witnesses who have given evidence. Thus, though the powers of the High Court in dealing with an appeal against acquittal are as wide as thos ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... of Sheo Swarup, the presumption of innocence in favour of the accused "is not certainly weakened by the fact that he has been acquitted at his trial". Therefore, the test suggested by the expression "substantial and compelling reasons" should not be construed as a formula which has to be rigidly applied in every case. That is the effect of the recent decisions of this Court, for instance, in Sanwat Singh v. State of Rajasthan AIR 1961 SC 715 and Harbans Singh v. State of Punjab AIR 1962 SC 439 and so, it is not necessary that before reversing a judgment of acquittal, the High Court must necessarily characterise the findings recorded therein as perverse. Therefore, the question which we have to ask ourselves in the present appeals is whether on the material produced by the prosecution, the High Court was justified in reaching the conclusion that the prosecution case against the appellants had been proved beyond a reasonable doubt, and that the contrary view taken by the trial court was erroneous. In answering this question, we would, no doubt, consider the salient and broad features of the evidence in order to appreciate the grievance made by the appellants against the conclusions o ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... above, the High Court and other appellate courts should follow the well-settled principles crystallised by number of judgments if it is going to overrule or otherwise disturb the trial court's acquittal: 1. The appellate court may only overrule or otherwise disturb the trial court's acquittal if it has "very substantial and compelling reasons" for doing so. A number of instances arise in which the appellate court would have "very substantial and compelling reasons" to discard the trial court's decision. "Very substantial and compelling reasons" exist when: (i) The trial court's conclusion with regard to the facts is palpably wrong; (ii) The trial court's decision was based on an erroneous view of law; (iii) The trial court's judgment is likely to result in "grave miscarriage of justice"; (iv) The entire approach of the trial court in dealing with the evidence was patently illegal; (v) The trial court's judgment was manifestly unjust and unreasonable; (vi) The trial court has ignored the evidence or misread the material evidence or has ignored material documents like dying declarations/report of the ballistic expert, etc. (vii) Th ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... d that the Appellate Court has all necessary powers to re-evaluate the evidence led before the trial Court as well as the conclusions arrived at and that it is the duty of the Court to specify the compelling and substantial reasons for reversing the order of acquittal passed by the trial Court. The reasons or reversal have to be cogent and adequate. 17 Thus, the law on the issue i.e. scope for interference in an appeal against acquittal can very broadly be summarized as follows; that in exceptional cases where there are compelling and substantial reasons; and where the judgment under appeal is found to be perverse, clearly unreasonable, manifestly erroneous, contrary to the evidence on record, or contrary to law, and the findings have been arrived at, by ignoring or excluding relevant material or by taking into consideration irrelevant/inadmissible material or is `against the weight of evidence' or if the finding so outrageously defies logic as to suffer from the vice of irrationality, the Appellate Court can interfere with the order of acquittal. However, whilst doing so, the Court has to bear in mind the presumption of innocence of the accused and further that the trial Court's ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ge, they started staying in a rental apartment at Malegaon; and that she got pregnant twice. The appellant has further alleged that after marriage, the respondent No.2 would consume liquor and that sometime in 2017, the respondent No. 2 came home late after consuming liquor and when she questioned him, he assaulted her and told her that she was married; that he had a wife and a son and that he did not want to live with her. The appellant has further alleged that when she learnt that the respondent No. 2 was married and had a child, she lodged an FIR as against the respondent No. 2 alleging the aforesaid offences. Infact, it is the appellant's case that she got married to the respondent No. 2 as per Hindu rites and customs. The evidence of the neighbours also does not, in any way, further the prosecution case. Paras 22, 29, 38 and 39 of the said judgment are reproduced hereinunder : "[22] In the present matter, from the facts and circumstances it is established that the prosecutrix was divorcee. She is matured lady having understanding sexual relations with a man, who is not her husband. As per the evidence of prosecution, she was having sexual relations with the accused for about ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
|
