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State of Haryana vs. Mohd. Yunus & Ors.

Not available · 2024 INSC 34Decided 12 Jan 2024
Not available
Justice M.M. Sundresh · Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra

Background

Four men: Mohd. Yunus, Mohd. Jamil, Ghasita and Akhtar Hussain: were alleged to have attacked and killed one Akbar with a "Pharsa," a "Kulhari," and a lathi in a village dispute in January 1999. They were tried separately (Akhtar Hussain having absconded and being tried later, in which he was acquitted). In the first trial, Yunus, Jamil and Ghasita were convicted under Section 302/34 IPC; on appeal, the High Court acquitted Yunus of murder (retaining only a Section 323 conviction) but upheld Jamil's and Ghasita's convictions. Ghasita died during the pendency of the further appeals. The State appealed Yunus's acquittal (Criminal Appeal 1307/2012), and Jamil appealed his conviction (Criminal Appeal 1308/2012).

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court found that the two main prosecution eyewitnesses, Deenu (PW-7) and Ahmad (PW-8), had been disbelieved as unreliable and self-contradictory in the separate trial of Akhtar Hussain (in which he was acquitted), and that the recovery of weapons from Yunus and Jamil had not been proved. Given that the same witnesses could not be selectively believed against Jamil while being rejected as untrustworthy in the parallel trial, the Court held it unsafe to sustain Jamil's Section 302/34 conviction, though his lesser Section 323/34 conviction (already served) was left undisturbed. Correspondingly, the State's appeal against Yunus's acquittal on the murder charge was dismissed, since the same infirm evidence could not support a different result for him.

Lesson Learnt

A witness's testimony cannot be treated as credible against one accused while being rejected as untrustworthy against another accused in a related trial arising from the same incident: internal consistency of witness credibility across connected proceedings is essential, and courts cannot pick and choose convictions based on the same doubted evidence.

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

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