Dismissed

State of U.P. v. Mani Ram

Allahabad HC6 Oct 2023GOVA/2856/1998

Case brief

AI extract

What is this about?

This judgment considers a leave application under Section 378(3) Cr.P.C. to appeal an acquittal. The High Court noted that the application failed to allege any misreading of evidence by the trial court. Upholding the principle against interfering with acquittals absent compelling reasons, the court rejected the leave application and dismissed the government appeal.

What did the court decide?

Leave to appeal was rejected and the government appeal was dismissed.

State of U.P. Vs Mani Ram — Criminal Trial and Appeal | Allahabad HC (2023)

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Neutral Citation No. - 2023:AHC:206232

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Court No. - 83

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Case :- GOVERNMENT APPEAL No. - 2856 of 1998

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Appellant :- State of U.P. Respondent :- Mani Ram Counsel for Appellant :- Arun Kumar Misra,Vidit Narayan Mishra Counsel for Respondent :- P.K.Srivastava,Pramod Kumar Srivastava

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Hon'ble Sanjay Kumar Pachori,J.

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The present leave application under Section 378(3) Cr.P.C. has been filed against the judgement and order dated 26.05.1998 passed by Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, Meerut, in Criminal Case No. 363 of 1994, under Section 420 of I.P.C., Police Station- Lalkurti, District- Meerut, by which the trial court acquitted the accused respondent under Section 420 of I.P.C.

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Brief facts of the prosecution case are that on 31.12.1990 the respondent submitted an application for his promotion stating that on 9.3.1984 the respondent was promoted as clerk, but on 24.7.1985 he was reverted back on his earlier post of peon, initially he was appointed as peon on 3.10.1973 along with his application he filed his high school certificate and mark sheet of year 1984. The aforesaid representation of the respondent was put up for approval on 15.1.1991 but on 16.3.1991 the complaint was made against the respondent that application has been filed on the basis of forged documents for promotion and the first information was lodged after verification of the documents from Uttar Pradesh Madhyamik Shiksha Parishad, Allahabd.

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In order to prove the charges against the accused respondent, the prosecution examined as many as four witnesses, PW-1. KS Bisht (First Informant), PW-2 Dayanand Sharma, PW-3 Om Narayan Gautam and PW-4 Nand Kishor Sagar.

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After examining the prosecution evidence, the statement of the accused respondent was recorded under Section 313 of Cr.P.C., wherein he stated that he was an Ex- Serviceman and member of a Schedule Tribe. He had not filed any certificate or mark sheet

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document for his promotion because there is no need to file any application. The accused respondent did not led any evidence in defence.

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The trial court after through examination of the prosecution evidence found that firstly; there is no evidence with regard to the proof the fact that the application has been filed for his promotion and the department has acted upon any application, secondly; there is no evidence with regard to the proof to the fact that the application was written by the respondent thirdly; the basis of charges of fabricated documents are photostat copies and the original documents were in custody of the department and the original documents were not sent for verification fourthly; the alleged photostat documents annexures of the application have not been proved and fifthly ; there is no evidence with regard to the submission of the application by the accused respondent.

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Learned A.G.A submits that the trial court without considering the evidence on record and after disbelieving the material evidence acquitted the accused respondent and the impugned judgement cannot be sustained.

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I have given thoughtful consideration to the submissions of the learned A.G.A and have carefully perused the judgement passed by the court below.

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Before I proceed to examine the weight of the submissions made on behalf of the State, it would be useful to notice the law with regard to the scope of power of the appellate court in interfering with the judgment of acquittal recorded by the trial court.

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In Sampat Babso Kale & Anr. v. State of Maharashtra, (2019) 4 SCC 739 , the Supreme Court observed as under: (SCC para 8 page 742)

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"8. With regard to the powers of an appellate court in an appeal against acquittal, the law is well established that the presumption of innocence which is attached to every accused person gets strengthened when such an accused is acquitted by the trial court and the High Court should not lightly interfere with the decision of the trial court which has recorded the evidence and observed the demeanour of witnesses. This Court in Chandrappa v. State of Karnataka1, laid down the following principles: (SCC, p.432, para 42)

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'42. From the above decisions, in our considered view, the following general principles regarding powers of the appellate

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court while dealing with an appeal against an order of acquittal emerge:

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(1) An appellate court has full power to review, reappreciate and reconsider the evidence upon which the order of acquittal is founded.

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(2) The Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 puts no limitation, restriction or condition on exercise of such power and an appellate court on the evidence before it may reach its own conclusion, both on questions of fact and of law.

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(3) Various expressions, such as, "substantial and compelling reasons", "good and sufficient grounds", "very strong circumstances', 'distorted conclusions", "glaring mistakes", etc., are not intended to curtail extensive powers of an appellate court in an appeal against acquittal. Such phraseologies are more in the nature of 'flourishes of language' to emphasise the reluctance of an appellate court to interfere with acquittal than to curtail the power of the court to review the evidence and to come to its own conclusion.

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(4) An appellate court, however, must bear in mind that in case of acquittal, there is double presumption in favour of the accused. Firstly, the presumption of innocence is available to him under the fundamental principle of criminal jurisprudence that every person shall be presumed to be innocent unless he is proved guilty by a competent court of law. Secondly, the accused having secured his acquittal, the presumption of his innocence is further reinforced, reaffirmed and strengthened by the trial court.

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(5) If two reasonable conclusions are possible on the basis of the evidence on record, the appellate court should not disturb the findings of acquittal recorded by the trial court."

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Keeping in mind the legal principles noticed above, now I shall examined the weight of the submissions with reference to the evidence by the prosecution and the findings returned thereon. Before that, at the outset, it may be observed that in the application seeking leave to appeal as well as in the memorandum of appeal, it has not been stated that the trial court has misread or misquoted the statement of the prosecution witnesses. I have to therefore, ascertain whether the findings of the trial court are sustainable or not. The thrust of the submission of the learned A.G.A. is that the trial court has not appreciated the evidence.

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After thorough examination of the evidence on record the application in question has not been produced or proved by the prosecution. There is no evidence to prove that the department

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has acted upon any application. There is no evidence with regard to the proof that the application was written by the respondent.

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Considering the facts and circumstances of the present case, and with reference to the principles governing the weighing the evidence, I do not find any factual or legal error in the assessment of the evidence by the trial court while acquitting the accused-respondent. Hence, keeping in mind the settled legal position that in an appeal against acquittal the appellate court should not interfere unless there are compelling reasons to differ with the finding of the trial court, I am of the considered view that no compelling reasons have been shown to me to grant leave to the State so as to entertain appeal against the judgment and order of acquittal passed by the court below. Consequently, the application seeking leave to appeal is rejected.

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Order on Memo of Appeal.

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As a result, Governement Appeal is dismissed.

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(Sanjay Kumar Pachori,J.)

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Order Date :- 6.10.2023 Saurabh

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Digitally signed by :- SAURABH High Court of Judicature at Allahabad

State of U.P. v. Mani Ram

Case brief

What is this about?

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State of U.P. v. Mani Ram

Case brief

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