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Harveer Singh and Anr. v. State of Uttar Pradesh

Criminal Appeal · 2019 INSC 391Decided 15 Mar 2019
Criminal Appeal No. 505 of 2019
Justice Abhay Manohar Sapre · Justice Dinesh Maheshwari

Background

The appellants were tried along with two others for assault-related offences (under Sections 323, 324, 452, 504 and 506 IPC) and were acquitted by a Magistrate in Mathura. On the State's appeal, the Sessions Court partly reversed this, convicting the appellants (while upholding the acquittal of the other two accused) and sentencing them to rigorous imprisonment and fines. The appellants' criminal revision against this conviction was dismissed by the Allahabad High Court in a one-line, ex parte order (no one appeared for them) that gave no reasons at all for rejecting the revision, prompting this further appeal to the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that the High Court's order was legally unsustainable because it simply recorded that it found "no manifest error" without engaging with the facts or legal arguments at all: a court deciding a criminal revision must apply its judicial mind and give reasons, whether it is upholding a conviction or ordering an acquittal. Because of this failure, the Supreme Court set aside the High Court's order and allowed the appeal, but it did not itself examine or decide the merits of the appellants' conviction. Instead, it remanded the matter back to the Allahabad High Court, directing it to decide the revision petition afresh on merits, in accordance with law, preferably within six months, leaving the appellants free to raise all their substantive arguments there.

Lesson Learnt

Courts exercising appellate or revisional powers cannot dismiss a case with a bare, unreasoned order: litigants are entitled to know why their case failed, and an order that lacks reasoning can itself be struck down and sent back for a proper decision, regardless of whether the ultimate outcome might be the same.

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

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