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A. Srinivasulu vs. The State Rep. by the Inspector of Police

Criminal Appeal · 2023 INSC 971Decided 15 Jun 2023
Criminal Appeal No. 2417 of 2010
V. Ramasubramanian · Pankaj Mithal

Background

The case arose from a scheme in the early 1990s in which BHEL, Tiruchirapalli was engaged by the Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage Board to set up desalination plants, and BHEL awarded the contract through a limited tender to a company called Entoma Hydro Systems. The CBI alleged that BHEL's Executive Director (A-1, the appellant here) and other officials conspired to rig the tender by including bogus firms alongside Entoma Hydro Systems, causing BHEL a loss of over Rs.4.3 crore after the contract was later cancelled. A trial court convicted several accused (including A-1, the appellant A. Srinivasulu, along with A-3, A-4 and A-7) of conspiracy, cheating, forgery, and corruption offences, and the Madras High Court (Madurai Bench) upheld the convictions, leading to three connected appeals before the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court examined the offence-wise evidence against each appellant in detail and found the prosecution's case unsustainable. It held that mere suspicion or association (such as A-1's role in approving tender procedure, or A-7's transfer of money to a firm he was a partner in) could not substitute for proof of guilty knowledge or conspiracy. On the forgery-related conviction, the Court found the High Court had improperly invoked Section 73 of the Evidence Act (comparison of handwriting/signatures) without any properly admitted or proved specimen signature to compare against, making that finding legally unsustainable. Concluding that the evidence against all three appellants fell short of proving the charges beyond reasonable doubt, the Court allowed all three appeals, set aside both the trial court's and the High Court's judgments, and acquitted the appellants of all charges.

Lesson Learnt

A conviction, especially for serious economic offences like corruption and forgery, cannot rest on inference, suspicion, or procedurally improper evidence (such as signature comparisons made without a properly proved specimen); courts must insist that each element of the offence is established through admissible, correctly proved evidence before upholding a criminal conviction.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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