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Mallappa & Ors. vs. State of Karnataka

Not available · 2024 INSC 104Decided 12 Feb 2024
Not available
Justice Bela M. Trivedi · Justice Satish Chandra Sharma

Background

The appellants were tried along with several others for the murder of one Marthandappa. The Trial Court acquitted all the accused, including the appellants, in 2005. The State of Karnataka appealed only against some of the acquitted accused, and the High Court reversed the trial court's acquittal as to the appellants in 2010, convicting them and sentencing them to life imprisonment, even though it left the acquittal of other co-accused (tried on the very same evidence) undisturbed. The appellants challenged this conviction before the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that an appellate court can overturn an acquittal only where the trial court's view is impossible or perverse. It is not enough that another view is also possible. Examining the evidence, the Court found the High Court had not identified any illegality, perversity, or manifest error in the trial court's reasoning, and had simply substituted its own view of the same evidence. Since the case rested on weak circumstantial evidence and the acquittal of the similarly-placed co-accused (on the same evidence) had not been disturbed, the Court restored the trial court's acquittal and ordered the appellants' release.

Lesson Learnt

An appellate court cannot convict a person merely because it would have appreciated the same evidence differently from the trial court: a reversal of acquittal requires the trial court's view to be genuinely unreasonable or perverse, not just debatable.

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

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