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Harvinder Singh @ Bachhu vs The State of Himachal Pradesh

Criminal Appeal · 2023 INSC 907Decided 13 Oct 2023
Criminal Appeal Nos. 266-267 of 2015
M.M. Sundresh · J.B. Pardiwala · A.S. Bopanna

Background

The appellant and a co-accused (since deceased) were tried for the murder, attempted rape, house-breaking, and theft of a woman found dead in a pool of blood, half-naked, in her home in 2003. The trial court acquitted them, disbelieving the sole eyewitness (PW1) because of his unnatural conduct. He did not enter the house or call for help despite hearing the victim's cries, and other material witnesses (the victim's young children, mother-in-law, and neighbour) were never examined, while the fingerprint report was never produced. The High Court of Himachal Pradesh reversed the acquittal on appeal, relying heavily on PW1 being "educated and God-fearing," and convicted the appellant of murder and attempted rape (though not rape or theft, which it found unproven).

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court restored the trial court's acquittal, holding that the High Court had wrongly elevated a witness's general reputation (being educated and pious) into positive proof of reliability, when reputation under the Evidence Act is, at best, weak evidence and cannot override glaring unnatural conduct. The Court emphasized the "double presumption of innocence" that attaches once a trial court has acquitted an accused after seeing witnesses firsthand: an appellate court should not lightly displace a possible and plausible view taken by the trial court. It found the prosecution's case fatally weakened by non-examination of key witnesses (including the victim's own children who were present in the house), the missing fingerprint report, and PW1's implausible behaviour, concluding the guilt had not been proved beyond reasonable doubt.

Lesson Learnt

A witness's personal reputation (such as being "educated" or "God-fearing") is not, by itself, proof of reliability, and appellate courts must be cautious before overturning a trial court's acquittal, especially where the prosecution has failed to examine available material witnesses or produce key forensic evidence like fingerprint reports, since the benefit of the doubt in such gaps goes to the accused.

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

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