Court No. - 1
Case :- CRIMINAL APPEAL No. - 1157 of 1979 Appellant :- Abid Respondent :- State Counsel for Appellant :- G.S. Hajela,Anita Shrivastava,Randhir Singh,S.M.A. Kazmi Counsel for Respondent :- A.G.A.
Hon'ble Ramesh Sinha,J.
Heard Sri Randhir Singh, learned counsel for the appellant and Sri I.P. Srivastava, learned A.G.A. for the State is present.
This criminal appeal has been preferred against the judgment and order dated 2.4.1979 passed by then IInd Additional Sessions Judge, Moradabad in S.T. No. 442 of 1978 convicting the appellant under Section 307 I.P.C. and sentencing him to five years R.I.
As per the report of the Additional District Judge, Court No. 9, Moradabad, dated 25.5.2010 it has been reported that inspite of the best effort made by the authorities concerned the record of the trial court cannot be reconstructed.
It appears from the report of the District Judge, Moradabad dated 30.10.2010 whereby he has stated that after the record of the case was lost, efforts were made by him to get the records reconstructed for which he appointed Additional District and Sessions Judge, Moradabad and the said Enquiry Officer vide his report dated 25.10.2010 has further informed him that inspite of the efforts applied records cannot be reconstructed.
In view of the said report of the District Judge, Moradabad, that the lower court record has been lost and only a photostat copy of the impugned order of the trial court dated 2.4.1979 has been annexed with the report of the Additional District and Sessions Judge, Court No. 9 Moradabad as there is no possibility of reconstruction of the record.
In view of the judgment of the Apex Court in the case of State of U.P. Vs. Abhay Raj Singh reported in 2004 (50) ACC 691, it is not possible either to get the record of the present case reconstructed or retrial as the recorded has been weeded out in accordance with law, hence the accused appellant cannot be held to be at fault for weeding out of the record. In this view of the matter, I have no option but to allow the present appeal and set aside the conviction and sentence of the appellants awarded by the trial court and acquit them of the aforesaid offences with which they have been charged.
The appellants are acquitted of the aforesaid offences with which they have been charged. They are stated to be on bail, they need not surrender before the trial court. Their sureties and bail bonds are discharged.
The appeal stands allowed.
Order Date :- 28.2.2018 Deepika