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Abdul Waheed v. State of Uttar Pradesh

Criminal Appeal · Neutral citation not assigned (Criminal Appeal No. 1166 of 2005)Decided 1 Sept 2015
Criminal Appeal No. 1166 of 2005
Justice Dipak Misra · Justice R. Banumathi

Background

In a 1974 dispute arising from a civil suit and contempt proceedings over illegal construction on panchayat land, the appellant and several relatives allegedly confronted the complainant's family the night before a court hearing, armed with guns and sticks, resulting in the deaths of two men from gunshot and blunt-weapon injuries. The trial court convicted the appellant and several co-accused of murder; on appeal, the Allahabad High Court partly allowed relief for some co-accused but confirmed the appellant's own conviction and life sentence.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court reviewed the eyewitness testimony, including that of an injured witness, whose evidence carries extra weight, alongside the medical and forensic evidence, and found the prosecution's version of events (that the accused party was the aggressor in a dispute rooted in the civil suit and contempt case) more credible than the defence's claim that the complainant's side had attacked first. It rejected the argument that the appellant, having fired a shot that hit a non-vital body part, should only be guilty of a lesser offence, holding that firing a gun at a person shows the requisite intent for murder. It also rejected leniency based on the appellant's advanced age (around 90), holding that the gravity of a double killing outweighs such sympathy. The appeal was dismissed and the appellant, who was on bail, was ordered into custody to serve the remainder of his sentence.

Lesson Learnt

When two courts have already made the same factual findings based on credible eyewitness and medical evidence, the Supreme Court will rarely revisit them, and neither the passage of decades nor old age by itself excuses a convict from serving a sentence for a serious violent crime.

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

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