Court No. - 11
Case :- GOVERNMENT APPEAL No. - 2818 of 2007 Appellant :- State Of U.P. Respondent :- Bhagwan & Others Counsel for Appellant :- V.S. Mishra
Hon'ble Om Prakash-VII,J.
Heard learned A.G.A. and perused the entire record.
The present appeal has been filed along with leave to appeal application against the impugned judgement and order dated 18.01.2007 passed by learned Special Judge, Lalitpur in Session Trial No. 10 of 2003 (State of U.P. Vs. Bhagwan and others), under Sections 323/34, 504, 506, I.P.C. and Section 3(1)X SC/ST Act, Police Station Bar, District Lalitpur, whereby accused-respondents were acquitted.
Submission of learned A.G.A. is that prosecution was able to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt. Witnesses examined in the matter have supported the prosecution case. Medical evidence fully support the oral evidence. Finding recorded by the trial court in the impugned judgment and order are perverse. Thus, prayer was made to grant leave to appeal.
I have considered the submissions.
In this matter, as is evident from the record, prosecution started against the accused-respondents for the offence under Sections 323/34, 504, 506, I.P.C. and Section 3(1)X SC/ST Act. Perusal of the record reveals that essential ingredients to constitute the offence under Section 3(1)X SC/ST Act have not been proved. Prosecution case was also not supported by the medical evidence. Perusal of the record also reveals that accused- respondents were convicted for the offence under Sections 323/34, 504, 506, I.P.C. and extending the benefit of first offender they were released on probation. If the findings recorded by the trial court are minutely analysed with the facts and evidence in consonance with submission raised by learned A.G.A., no illegality, infirmity or perversity is found in the impugned judgement and order. In the facts and circumstances of the case, view taken by the trial court is also a possible view.
Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of S. Govindaraju Versus State of Karnataka, (2013) 15 Supreme Court Cases 315 has held as under.
"It is a settled legal proposition that in exceptional circumstances, the appellate court, for compelling reasons, should not hesitate to reverse a judgment of acquittal passed by the court below, if the findings so recorded by the court below are found to be perverse i.e if the conclusions arrived at by the court below are contrary to the evidence on record, or if the court's entire approach with respect to dealing with the evidence is found to be patently illegal, leading to the miscarriage of justice, or if its judgment is unreasonable and is based on an erroneous understanding of the law and of the facts of the case. While doing so, the appellate court must bear in mind the presumption of innocence in favour of the accused, and also that an acquittal by the court below bolsters such presumption of innocence."
In the case of Gangabhavani Versus Rayapati Venkat Reddy and Others, (2013) 15 Supreme Court Cases 298, Hon'ble Supreme Court has held as under.
"This Court has persistently emphasised that there are limitations while interfering with an order against acquittal. In exceptional cases where there are compelling circumstances and the judgment under appeal is found to be perverse, the appellate court can interfere with the order of acquittal. The appellate court should bear in mind the presumption of innocence of the accused and further that the acquittal by the lower Court bolsters the presumption of his innocence. Interference in a routine manner where the other view is possible should be avoided, unless there are good reasons for interference."
Thus, the application moved by the appellant State of U.P. to grant leave to appeal for the reason discussed herein above is not liable to be allowed and same is refused.
Since the application for grant of leave to appeal has been refused, the appeal is also not liable to be admitted and is dismissed at this stage.
Order Date :- 31.10.2018 Sanjeet