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Narender Kumar v. State of NCT of Delhi

Criminal Appeal · Neutral citation not assigned (Criminal Appeal No. 447 of 2010)Decided 16 Dec 2015
Criminal Appeal No. 447 of 2010
Justice F.M. Ibrahim Kalifulla · Justice Uday Umesh Lalit

Background

In August 1980, police constables at a Delhi police post illegally held a man for several days and beat him to extract a confession about stolen property. He was then set on fire in a police quarter and died the next day. Before his death, a Metropolitan Magistrate recorded his dying declaration naming the constables. The Trial Court convicted a head constable of murder and two constables of causing grievous hurt, and the High Court upheld the convictions.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court dismissed both appeals and upheld the convictions and sentences. It held that the dying declaration was reliable: the Magistrate verified the victim's identity, the doctor certified that he was fit to make a statement, and the Magistrate recorded his own endorsement that the victim was fully conscious. The Court held that the absence of a signature or thumb impression on the statement was a trivial defect that did not invalidate an otherwise proven declaration. It also rejected the alibi of one constable, whose evidence was contradicted by the duty register and the timing of events, and found the claim of false implication too weak to accept.

Lesson Learnt

A dying declaration recorded properly by a magistrate, with a doctor's fitness certificate, can by itself support a conviction, and small procedural lapses do not automatically make it unusable. Police officers who abuse their custody of a person are not protected by their uniform.

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

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