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Virendra vs. The State of M.P.

Criminal Appeal · 2022 INSC 678Decided 11 Jul 2022
Criminal Appeal No. 466 of 2018
Sanjay Kishan Kaul · M.M. Sundresh

Background

The deceased was allegedly shot dead in 2001 during a long-running property dispute, and the appellant along with two others (one of whom died during trial) were accused. The trial court convicted the appellant and a co-accused (who did not appeal) and sentenced them to life imprisonment; the Madhya Pradesh High Court upheld the conviction. The appellant then approached the Supreme Court by special leave, arguing that key prosecution witnesses had actually given evidence supporting the defence.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court closely reviewed the eyewitnesses and found that two key prosecution witnesses (PW1 and PW3) gave testimony that actually undermined the prosecution's version (indicating a different, unidentified person fired the shot) yet the prosecution never declared them hostile or sought to discredit them, so their evidence remained binding on the prosecution's own case. The Court relied on precedent holding that unchallenged testimony favourable to the accused, even from prosecution witnesses, must benefit the accused. It also found the recovery of the firearm from the appellant was not proved in the manner required by law, and that the evidence overall fell short of proving guilt beyond reasonable doubt. The Court set aside the conviction and directed that the appellant be set at liberty.

Lesson Learnt

If the prosecution's own witnesses give evidence favourable to the accused and the prosecution does not challenge them as hostile, courts must give the accused the benefit of that unchallenged testimony: a conviction cannot survive on selective reliance on only the parts of witness evidence that favour the prosecution.

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

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