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Doongar Singh & Ors. v. The State of Rajasthan

Criminal Appeal · 2017 INSC 1154Decided 28 Nov 2017
Criminal Appeal Nos. 2045-2046 of 2017
Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel · Justice Uday Umesh Lalit

Background

Twenty persons were tried for the 2005 murder of one Bhagwan Singh in Sikar, Rajasthan; nine were convicted concurrently by the trial court and the High Court and became the appellants before the Supreme Court (others were acquitted or had died by the time of appeal). The appellants challenged their convictions under Article 136 of the Constitution (the Supreme Court's special leave jurisdiction).

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court, after hearing extensive arguments and examining the record, found no infirmity in the concurrent findings of the trial court and High Court and dismissed the criminal appeals, upholding the convictions. However, the Court went on to flag a serious procedural problem it had observed in how the trial itself was conducted: the examination of a key eyewitness was adjourned for over four months, contrary to the Section 309 CrPC mandate that witness examination, once begun, continue from day to day absent special reasons. Citing a line of its own precedents (Shambhu Nath Singh, Mohd. Khalid, Vinod Kumar), the Court reiterated that such prolonged adjournments create real risk of witnesses being pressured or won over, and issued directions that trial courts strictly comply with Section 309, that eyewitnesses be examined at the earliest, and that eyewitness statements be recorded under Section 164 CrPC (preferably via audio-video means), with a copy of the order sent to all High Courts for circulation to trial judges.

Lesson Learnt

Even where a conviction is ultimately upheld, long adjournments during a criminal trial's evidence stage are a recognized risk factor for witnesses being pressured into changing their testimony: the law requires continuous, day-to-day examination of witnesses once it begins, and courts are expected to enforce this strictly rather than grant adjournments routinely.

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

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