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State rep. by the Drugs Inspector v. Manimaran

Criminal Appeal · 2018 INSC 1122Decided 30 Nov 2018
Criminal Appeal No. 1493 of 2018
Justice R. Banumathi · Justice Indira Banerjee

Background

The respondent ran a medical shop that was inspected in 2008 and found to be stocking 87 kinds of drugs without a valid licence. He had admitted in writing that he had no licence and had not disclosed his drug supplier. The trial court and the first appellate court convicted him, but the Madras High Court, in a revision, acquitted him, mainly because two persons connected with the shop's earlier ownership were not examined as witnesses.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that the respondent's own written admissions (that he had purchased the shop and had no licence) made the non-examination of those other witnesses irrelevant, and that carbon-copy documents could validly be treated as primary evidence under Section 62 of the Evidence Act. It held that the High Court, exercising mere revisional (not appellate) jurisdiction, was wrong to re-appreciate evidence and overturn concurrent findings of two courts below. The conviction under Sections 27(b)(ii) and 28 of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act was restored, though the one-year prison sentence was reduced to three months given the decade-old nature of the offence and the respondent's clean record.

Lesson Learnt

A High Court's revisional power is much narrower than an appeal: it generally cannot re-weigh evidence and reverse two courts' concurrent findings of guilt, and a person's own written admission can be enough to sustain a conviction even without certain other witnesses.

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

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