State Of U.P. vs Ram Nagina Singh
- CitationAIRONLINE 2002 SC 458
Ratio decidendi
The rule this decision rests on
Where a High Court acquits an accused person on the ground that the oral evidence of prosecution witnesses is not compatible and the trial court has misread the evidence, and where the specific role of the accused in the commission of the alleged offence has not been established by the evidence on record, the Supreme Court will not interfere with the order of acquittal unless the view taken by the High Court is perverse or implausible. Where an accused has been convicted under Section 302 read with Section 34 IPC without any specific role being assigned to him in the commission of the offence, and the statements of witnesses recorded during investigation do not involve him as an active participant, the conviction rests on an infirm basis and acquittal by the High Court on such grounds does not warrant interference by the Supreme Court.
Written by Miss Lucy from the judgment below, not taken from a headnote.
Judgment
As delivered
1. The State is in appeal against the order of acquittal. All the three accused persons charged under Section 302 IPC read with Section 34 IPC and sentenced to life imprisonment and also under Section 307/ 34 IPC and sentenced to four years' rigorous imprisonment. The High Court, on appeal, however, acquitted all the three accused persons on the ground of non compatibility of the oral evidence between the witnesses examined in support of the prosecution. The High Court has been rather candid enough to record that, as a matter of fact, the trial court has misread the evidence in its true and proper perspective.
2. Incidentally, the factual score depicts that of the three accused persons, two accused persons are already dead and the third one is alive and as such the appeal is maintained against the third accused person namely Ram Nagina Singh.
3. Apart from the factual score, their being no perversity in the order of the High Court since the view taken by the High Court cannot but be termed to be a view plausible and the interference of this Court is not called for in the contextual facts. The present state of affairs, as notice above, however, warrants this Court further to add that in any event there exist no evidence available on record against the surviving respondent namely Ram Nagina Singh. The learned sessions judge, however, recorded that while on the factual score no specific role has been assigned to Ram Magina Singh, neither the 161 statements of thy witnesses involve Ram Nagina Singh as an active participant and as such the learned sessions judge thought it prudent to convict the accused under Section 302/ 34 IPC for imprisonment for life. It is this scrutiny which has prompted the High Court, on the wake of the available evidence on record especially against Ram Nagina Singh to record a finding of acquittal. We do not find any perversity therein and as such, we are not inclined to interfere with the impugned order. The appeal accordingly fails and is dismissed.
4. Bail bonds shall stand discharged.
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