Hon’ble Supreme Court of India observed, “The following principles have to be kept in mind by the Appellate Court while dealing with appeals, particularly, against the order of acquittal: (i) There is no limitation on the part of the Appellate Court to review the evidence upon which the order of acquittal is found.
(ii) The Appellate Court in an appeal against acquittal can review the entire evidence and come to its own conclusions.
(iii) The Appellate Court can also review the Trial Court’s conclusion with respect to both facts and law.
(iv) While dealing with the appeal preferred by the State, it is the duty of the Appellate Court to marshal the entire evidence on record and by giving cogent and adequate reasons set aside the judgment of acquittal.
(v) An order of acquittal is to be interfered only when there are “compelling and substantial reasons” for doing so. If the order is “clearly unreasonable”, it is a compelling reason for interference.
(vi) While sitting in judgment over an acquittal the Appellate Court is first required to seek an answer to the question whether finding of the Trial Court are palpably wrong, manifestly, erroneous or demonstrably unsustainable. If the Appellate Court answers the above question in the negative the order of acquittal is not to be disturbed. Conversely, if the Appellate Court holds, for reasons to be recorded, that the order of acquittal cannot at all be sustained in view of any of the above infirmities, it can reappraise the evidence to arrive at its own conclusion.
(vii) When the Trial Court has ignored the evidence or misread the material evidence or has ignored material documents like dying declaration/report of Ballistic Experts etc., the Appellate Court is competent to reverse the decision of the Trial Court depending on the materials placed……….
Cryptic telephonic messages could not be treated as FIR as their object only is to get the police to the scene of offence and not to register the FIR... In the case on hand, the object of persons sending the telephonic messages including PW-70 Rohit Bal was only to bring the police to the scene of offence and not to register the FIR….
.investigation starts on information relating to commission of an offence given to an officer in charge of a police station and recorded under Section 154 of the Code. By applying the ratio of the said judgment to the case on hand, it can be clearly said that the investigation started after the recording of the statement of PW 2 as FIR around 3.40 a.m. on 30.04.1999…
..Learned senior counsel for the appellant also relied on judgment of the Gujarat High Court in Mehr Vajsi Deva vs. State of Gujarat, AIR 1965 Guj 143. A perusal of the said judgment shows that the details of the offence given by the telephonic message in the said judgment clearly described that‘one man was assaulted by means of an axe at Sudama Chowk’, on the other hand, in the case on hand the telephonic message did not give any details of the offence or accused and the same was a vague information……The judgment in Maruti Rama Naik vs. State of Mahrashtra, (2003) 10 SCC 670, relied on is also distinguishable. The delay in recording the statement in that case was coupled with the unnatural conduct of the witness and that was what made the evidence of the said witness unreliable, which is not so in the present case. In Prithvi vs. Mam Raj , (2004) 13 SCC 279, it was held that delay in recording the statement of the witness can occur due to various reasons and can have several explanations and that it is for the Court to assess the explanation and, if satisfied, accept the statement of the witness…
……The law is very clear that where a witness for the prosecution turns hostile, the Court may rely upon so much of the testimony, which supports the case of the prosecution and is corroborated by other evidence…
…..The power of the Court under Section 165 of the Evidence Act is in a way complementary to its power under Section 311of the Code. The section consists of two parts i.e. (i) giving a discretion to the Court to examine the witness at any stage and (ii) the mandatory portion which compels the Courts to examine a witness if his evidence appears to be essential to the just decision of the Court. Though the discretion given to the Court is very wide, the very width requires a corresponding caution…
…..even in the cases where during investigation a document is bona fide obtained by the investigating agency and in the opinion of the prosecutor is relevant and would help in arriving at the truth, that document should also be disclosed to the accused…
….A criminal trial is not an enquiry into the conduct of an accused for any purpose other than to determine whether he is guilty of the offence charged. In this connection, that piece of conduct can be held to be incriminatory which has no reasonable explanation except on the hypothesis that he is guilty…
…..Presumption of innocence of an accused is a legal presumption and should not be destroyed at the very threshold through the process of media trial and that too when the investigation is pending……Every effort should be made by the print and electronic media to ensure that the distinction between trial by media and informative media should always be maintained. Trial by media should be avoided particularly, at a stage when the suspect is entitled to the constitutional protections.”
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