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Rajesh Kumar C.K. Jain v. The State of Karnataka

Criminal Appeal · 2017 INSC 1019Decided 9 Oct 2017
Criminal Appeal No. 1833 of 2017
Justice A.K. Sikri · Justice Ashok Bhushan

Background

The appellant was convicted by a Magistrate for stealing a settlement bond document and hiding it, based mainly on an alleged confession made to the investigating officer. On appeal, the Sessions Court acquitted him after a detailed re-examination of the evidence. The State then filed a revision petition, and the Karnataka High Court, exercising its revisional powers, set aside the acquittal and remanded the case to the Appellate Court for reconsideration, prompting the accused to appeal to the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court examined the trial and appellate records itself and found that the Appellate Court's acquittal was not cursory at all: it had carefully weighed the documentary and oral evidence, drawn justified adverse inferences from the prosecution's failure to produce corroborating witnesses, and correctly excluded an inadmissible "confession" that lacked the safeguards required under the Evidence Act. The Court held that the High Court's criticism, that the Appellate Court had ignored the record, was factually incorrect, and that a revisional court cannot simply substitute its own view for a well-reasoned appellate acquittal. It therefore set aside the High Court's order and restored the acquittal.

Lesson Learnt

A High Court's revisional jurisdiction over a criminal acquittal is narrow: it is not a second appeal, and a lower appellate court's well-reasoned acquittal, based on a genuine re-weighing of the evidence, cannot be overturned in revision merely because the High Court disagrees with it.

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

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