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Omprakash Sahni vs Jai Shankar Chaudhary and Anr. Etc. (Criminal Appeal Nos. 1331-1332 of 2023)

Criminal Appeal · 2023 INSC 478Decided 2 May 2023
Criminal Appeal Nos. 1331-1332 of 2023
M.R. Shah · J.B. Pardiwala · M.R. Shah's signature

Background

The appellant's brother, an elected Block Pramukh (a local government head) in Bihar, was shot dead in 2018, allegedly by political rivals after he had defeated one of them in a no-confidence vote. A trial court convicted three men of murder and sentenced them to life imprisonment, but the Patna High Court, while their appeal was pending, suspended their sentences and released them on bail, citing doubts about the case such as a delay in filing the FIR and alleged over-writing on the FIR document. The victim's brother (the original complainant) challenged this bail grant before the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court reviewed the settled law on Section 389 CrPC, holding that once a person is convicted of a serious offence like murder, the presumption of innocence no longer applies, and suspension of sentence pending appeal should be granted only in exceptional cases where there is a genuine, obvious likelihood of acquittal, not through a fresh appreciation of evidence at the bail stage. The Court found that the High Court had improperly re-evaluated evidence (delay in FIR, alleged over-writing, political motive) that properly belonged to the final hearing of the appeal, rather than identifying anything "palpable" on the face of the record showing the conviction was unsustainable. Because the trial court's finding of guilt rested on consistent eyewitness testimony, the Supreme Court held the High Court's bail order was a serious error, set it aside, and directed the convicts to surrender within three days, while clarifying its observations should not affect the final outcome of the pending appeals.

Lesson Learnt

After a person has been convicted of murder, courts must be very cautious about releasing them on bail pending appeal: bail at that stage requires clear, obvious grounds suggesting the conviction is unlikely to stand, not a fresh re-weighing of the trial evidence.

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

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