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Amar Nath Jha v. Nand Kishore Singh

Criminal Appeal · 2018 INSC 672Decided 3 Aug 2018
Criminal Appeal Nos. 94-97 of 2013
Justice N.V. Ramana · Justice Mohan M. Shantanagoudar

Background

On the night of 21-22 April 1999, 30-40 unknown persons committed dacoity at the complainant's house and his uncle Madhukant Jha's adjoining house in Bihar, looting gold and cash; during the raid the dacoits shot and killed the 75-year-old Madhukant Jha and injured two other witnesses. The Sessions Court convicted the accused (Nand Kishore Singh and Maheshwar Singh) under Section 396 IPC and sentenced them to death, and separately convicted Maheshwar Singh under Section 412 IPC, while a co-accused, Mintu Kumar, was found to be a juvenile and his case was sent to the Juvenile Justice Board. On a death reference and appeal, the Patna High Court acquitted the convicted accused and upheld the juvenility finding for Mintu Kumar; the complainant appealed this acquittal to the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court dismissed the appeals against acquittal, holding that an appellate court should not casually overturn an acquittal where the evidence reasonably supports two possible views, and found that the High Court had reasonably concluded that the prosecution failed to explain certain missing links in the chain of evidence establishing the dacoity. On the juvenility issue, the Court declined to disturb the High Court's finding (based on a three-doctor Medical Board's radiological assessment that Mintu Kumar was 20-22 years old as of a 2006 examination, meaning he would have been under 18 at the time of the 1999 offence), since there was no material on record to take a contrary view.

Lesson Learnt

An appellate court will not convert an acquittal into a conviction merely because the trial court reached a different conclusion on the same evidence: it will only interfere if the High Court's view was not a reasonably possible one; and a juvenility finding based on a properly constituted Medical Board's scientific assessment is given strong deference absent contrary evidence.

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

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