State of H.P. V.s
Naresh Kumar @ Kaka & Ors. [2009] INSC 813 (22 April 2009)
Judgment
IN THE SUPREME COURT
OF INDIA CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION CRIMINAL APPEAL NO.1202 OF 2003 State
of Himachal Pradesh .....Appellant Versus Naresh Kumar @ Kaka & Ors.
.....Respondents
Dr. ARIJIT PASAYAT,J.
Challenge in this
appeal is to the judgment of a Division Bench of the Himachal Pradesh High
Court directing acquittal of the respondents who faced trial of alleged
commission of offences punishable under Section 302 read with Section 34 and
323 read with 34 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (in short, 'the IPC').
Learned Sessions
Judge, Hamirpur had found the present respondent- accused persons guilty and
had convicted each one of them and sentenced to imprisonment for life and to
pay fine of Rs.2000/- with default stipulation.
Learned Sessions
Judge, however, acquitted the co-accused Sunil Kumar.
We need not deal with
the factual aspects in detail because we find that the High Court has not
analysed the evidence in detail. It has come to certain abrupt conclusions
about the prosecution version being not credible. Since the High Court was
upsetting a judgment of the Trial Court which has been rendered after analysing
the evidence, the casual manner in which the appeal was disposed of allowing
the appeal filed by the present Crl.A.No.1202/03 .... (contd.) respondent-accused
persons was certainly not the proper course to be adopted.
Therefore, without
expressing any opinion on merit, we set aside the impugned judgment and remit
the matter to the High Court for fresh consideration.
Since the matter is
pending since long, we request the High Court to explore the possibility of
disposing of the appeal as early as practicable and preferably by the end of
September 2009.
After the acquittal
when this Court granted leave, the respondents were not in custody and bailable
warrants were issued. They will continue to be so till the disposal of the
matter afresh by the High Court.
The appeal is allowed
accordingly.
Sd/-
..........................J. [Dr. ARIJIT PASAYAT]
Sd/-
..........................J. [ASOK KUMAR GANGULY]
New
Delhi.
April
22, 2009.
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