Legal Reference Library

In Dr. Jitendra Gupta Vs. State of Bihar, the hon'ble Patna High Court held that In India, the courts would not, ordinarily, quash a criminal proceeding merely because of the reason that at the end of the trial, conviction of the person, facing the trial, appears impossible on account of insufficiency of material. This restriction is, however, not a restriction of universal application. Hence, in a given case, it is possible to quash a criminal proceeding if, it is, on the basis of the materials available, reasonable to reach a conclusion that at the end of the trial, the accused would have to be acquitted.

Observing that unless a dying declaration is trustworthy, it cannot be made the basis for conviction, particularly if the person making it was not conscious and well-oriented while making the statement, the Bombay High Court recently granted bail to a man accused of allegedly murdering his wife by setting her on fire. His wife had left several dying declarations, oral as well as written, inconsistent with one another. In one version, she claimed her husband had set her on fire. The incident occurred on January 7, 2016, at her matrimonial house. She died due to burn injuries at the Civil Hospital, Nashik. “It is well settled that in case of plural dying declarations, they should be consistent with each other. Though it is said that a dying person does not speak lies, but there is no initial presumption that dying declaration contains the truth and nothing but the truth. The one who makes a dying declaration is not available for cross-examination and unless it is shown that a dying dec...

Calcutta High Court has recently held that a person is not entitled to back wages for the period during which he was out of service due to dismissal from service by reason of his conviction under Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code and subsequent reinstatement in service upon his acquittal by the Appellate Court. In this Case the Petitioner was an employee of Food Corporation of India. FCI had dismissed him from Service on his conviction U/S 498A IPC, invoking the provision of Regulation 63(1) of the Food Corporation of India (Staff) Regulations, 1971. Subsequently, petitioner was found not guilty of the charge under Section 498A of the IPC by the Appellate Court. By an order dated 14 January, 2013, the petitioner was reinstated in service. It was stated in the said order that the period of the petitioner’s absence in service from the date of dismissal till the date of reinstatement will be treated as non-duty for all purposes and for that period he will not be entitled to any back w...

The Madras High Court has ruled that an employee removed from service due to conviction in a corruption case by the trial court is entitled for back wages if he wins his appeal in an appellate court. Besides if the employee wins the appeal on merit, he is entitled for continuity of service also, justices S Manikumar and C T Selvamof the Madurai bench said, dismissing a writ appeal by Executive Officer of Mamsapuram Panchayat against a single judge's 2013 order to reinstate an employee who was dismissed in 2008. The principle of "no work, no pay" cannot be applied in every case. Every employee reinstated in service on acquittal cannot be denied back wages and continuity of service. Once the conviction is set aside by an appellate court, the stigma is removed, the judges said. The employee should be restored to his original position as if he was not removed and continued to be in service all along, the Judges said. They disagreed with the Executive Officer's con...

The Supreme Court has held that the sufficiency of injury to cause death must be proved to sustain a conviction under Section 302 of Indian Penal Code and that cannot be inferred from the fact that death has taken place. Three Judge Bench comprising of the Chief Justice, T.S. Thakur, Justices A.K. Sikri and R. Banumati, in Nankaunoo vs State of UP, modified conviction of an a person who was convicted for murder as that under Section 304 Part 1 IPC. In this case, the appellant was accused of killing the deceased using a country made pistol which was never recovered during investigation. Relying on the oral testimony and medical report, the Trial Court had convicted the accused. The High Court affirmed conviction. He approached Apex Court. The Apex Court observed that in the light of unimpeachable oral evidence which is corroborated by the medical evidence, non-recovery of ‘country made pistol’ does not materially affect the case of the prosecution. The Court added that any omission on t...

Supreme Court: While deciding upon the issue that whether an accused can be convicted only on the basis of suspicion and circumstantial evidence without any direct proof given by the prosecution, the Division Bench of V. Gopala Gowda and Amitava Roy, JJ., held that it would be unjustified to convict an accused only on the basis of suspicion and circumstantial evidence until and unless that evidences are corroborative with direct proof given by the prosecution. The Court thereby set aside the decision of High Court of Patna and held that an accused cannot be convicted until and unless all charges against him are proved beyond any reasonable doubt by the prosecution. The appellant and deceased were husband and wife, while returning from their honeymoon the deceased went missing. The prosecution (parents of deceased) filed a complaint against appellant and his parents that they murdered the deceased due to non-fulfilment of their dowry demands. The High Court of Patna convicted appellant...

Conviction only on the basis of suspicion and circumstantial evidences is unjustified CASE BRIEFSSUPREME COURT Published on January 1, 2016By Editor Leave a comment1732 views   DSC_5487 Supreme Court: While deciding upon the issue that whether an accused can be convicted only on the basis of suspicion and circumstantial evidence without any direct proof given by the prosecution, the Division Bench of V. Gopala Gowda and Amitava Roy, JJ., held that it would be unjustified to convict an accused only on the basis of suspicion and circumstantial evidence until and unless that evidences are corroborative with direct proof given by the prosecution. The Court thereby set aside the decision of High Court of Patna and held that an accused cannot be convicted until and unless all charges against him are proved beyond any reasonable doubt by the prosecution. The appellant and deceased were husband and wife, while returning from their honeymoon the deceased went missing. The prosecutio...

Dealing with the question of admissibility of confessional statements so as to establish criminal conspiracy vide Section 120B of the Penal Code, 1860, a bench comprising of  Dr. A.K. Sikri and UU Lalit observed that the High Court’s approach of relying upon the confessional statements, otherwise inadmissible, with the aid of 'other connected evidence' is contrary to law. The inadmissibility of confessional statements, as submitted by advocate Sushil Kumar on behalf of the Appellants,  stood accepted and established by the Court owing to the joint operation of Sections 25 and 26 of the  Evidence Act, 1872,whereby confession to a police officer and confession made by an accused in police custody do not stand proved as against him. The definition of the term 'confession' meanwhile, was restricted to “mean a direct acknowledgment of guilt and not the admission of an incriminating fact, howsoever grave or conclusive”. Extending its deliberation to Section 27 of the Eviden...