CrPC | Victim Not Required To Seek Leave To Appeal Against Order Of Acquittal: Patna High Court

The observation came from a division bench of Justice Khatim Reza and Justice Chakradhari Sharan Singh:

"A victim has absolute right to prefer an appeal against the order of acquittal and therefore he/she is not required to even seek leave to appeal as required in case of "complainant" while preferring the appeal under Section 378(4) Criminal Procedure Code. We have kept this legal principle in mind while considering this appeal."

The appeal was filed under Section 372 CrPC against the judgment of Sessions Judge acquitting the respondents of the offences punishable under Sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 302 (murder) r/w Section 34 of IPC.

It was preferred by the widow of the deceased, whose statutory right to file an appeal flows from Section 2(wa) of the Criminal Procedure Code (Amendment) Act, 2008.

The Trial court found commission of offence under Section 304 part-II of IPC proved against accused Rishi Kumar who on sudden provocation was found to have given single blow by Kudal and that there was no evidence to suggest that he had repeated the blow. The medical evidence also corroborated the same.

The High Court noted that that the right of filing appeal under Section 372 of Criminal Procedure Code has accrued on account of the insertion of the proviso to Section 372 Criminal Procedure Code which came to be inserted by Act 05 of 2009 with effect from 31.12.2009 conferring upon victim right to prefer an appeal against any order passed by the Court acquitting the accused or convicting an accused for a lesser offence or imposing inadequate compensation and as per the said proviso, such appeal shall lie to the Court to which an appeal ordinarily lies against the order of conviction of such Court.

The Court noted that the principles which are germane for considering an appeal against acquittal are well settled in various decisions of the Supreme Court. Illustratively, in case of Ramanand Yadav Vs. Prabhunath Jha:

"There is no embargo on the appellate Court reviewing the evidence upon which an order of acquittal is based. Generally, the order of acquittal shall not be interfered with because the presumption of innocence of the accused is further strengthened by acquittal. The golden thread which runs through the web of administration of justice in criminal cases is that if two views are possible on the evidence adduced in the case, one pointing to the guilt of the accused and the other to his innocence, the view which is favourable to the accused should be adopted"

While applying the above principle the court was of view that the prosecution has failed to establish the allegation against the respondents beyond reasonable doubt.

"The Trial Court, in our opinion has rightly discarded the evidence of P.W. 1 to 5, there being apparent inconsistency as has been noticed in paragraphs 12, 14, 15, 17 and 19 of the judgement of the Trial Court. The finding recorded by the trial court does not suffer from any legal infirmity requiring this Courts interference."

In view of the above, the appeal was dismissed.

Case Title : Smita Kumari @ Smita Devi v State Of Bihar And Ors

Citation: 2022 LiveLaw (Pat) 22

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