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Jafarudheen & Ors. vs. State of Kerala

Criminal Appeal · 2022 INSC 464Decided 22 Apr 2022
Criminal Appeal Nos. 430-431 of 2015
Sanjay Kishan Kaul · M.M. Sundresh

Background

The case arose from a politically-motivated attack in Kerala in July 2002, where a group of assailants armed with swords and country bombs attacked and killed two members of a rival political group. Sixteen persons were tried; the trial court convicted five of them (based on clear eyewitness identification) and acquitted several others, including four accused referred to as A-10 to A-13, for lack of reliable identification evidence. On appeal, the Kerala High Court upheld the five convictions and also reversed the trial court's acquittal of A-10 to A-13, convicting them too. Both the originally-convicted persons and the newly-convicted A-10 to A-13 appealed to the Supreme Court (three connected appeals).

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court dismissed the appeals of the five persons whose conviction had been upheld throughout, finding no infirmity in how the trial court and High Court had assessed delay in the FIR and the eyewitness evidence. However, for A-10 to A-13, the Supreme Court held that the High Court was wrong to overturn their acquittal: it had effectively applied a civil-case "balance of probabilities" standard instead of the much higher threshold required before an appellate court may disturb an acquittal. The identification evidence against them was inconsistent and given only after unexplained delays, and the recoveries of evidence linked to them were procedurally doubtful (attesting witnesses belonged to the same political party as the complainant, or were not properly connected to the accused). The Supreme Court restored the trial court's acquittal for A-10 to A-13.

Lesson Learnt

An appellate court cannot lightly convert an acquittal into a conviction; it must be satisfied the trial court's view was not even a reasonably possible one: a mere disagreement, based on a lower "probability" standard more suited to civil cases, is not enough.

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

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