The Supreme Court on Tuesday (August 11) held that the documentary evidence, including official service records establishing the accused's absence from the place of occurrence, constitutes unimpeachable material that can be considered at the threshold stage for quashing of the criminal case.

The Court said that the rule that an accused must ordinarily prove alibi during trial is not an inflexible rule and cannot be interpreted as an absolute bar against considering reliable and undisputed documentary evidence establishing alibi at the pre-trial stage.

“It cannot be read as laying down an inflexible rule that no species of documentary material touching upon presence or absence of the accused may ever be looked into at the threshold, irrespective of its source, character, and the absence of any dispute as to its authenticity.”, observed a bench of Justice Sanjay Karol and Justice Augustine George Masih, while setting aside the Allahabad High Court's order which had refused to quash the domestic cruelty case (S. 498A IPC) against the Appellant, a BSF personnel, who was posted near the Indo-Bangladesh border and was not present in Uttar Pradesh when the alleged incident occurred.

The High Court refused to take on record the official service documents presented by the Appellant, establishing the plea of alibi under Section 11 of the Evidence Act, 1872. Relying upon the Supreme Court's decision in Rajendra Singh v. State of Uttar Pradesh (2007), the High Court held that the plea of alibi involved disputed questions of fact which could only be adjudicated during trial.

Aggrieved by the High Court's decision, the appellant approached the Supreme Court.

Amongst other issues, the most important issue framed by the Court was whether the High Court was justified in declining to examine, at the threshold, the effect of the official service certificate establishing the appellant's absence from the place of occurrence

Setting aside the High Court's decision, the judgment authored by Justice Masih observed that the High Court erred in placing reliance on Rajendra Singh (supra), to deny plea of alibi at a threshold stage. The Court said that the Rajendra Singh (supra) judgment was delivered in a different set of facts, where the plea of alibi was taken on a sworn private affidavit before the police, whose veracity was open to challenge and cross-examination in a trial.

Distinguishing the Rajendra Singh (supra), the Court gave credence to the Appellant's service record, which unimpeachably established that the Appellant was absent from the crime scene and was posted on the Indo-Sino border to establish his absence when the crime occurred.

“Where the material in question is an official record maintained in the ordinary course of duty by a wing of the Armed Forces of the Union, is placed on record from the earliest stage of investigation itself, and has never been impugned as forged, fabricated, or otherwise unreliable by the prosecution at any stage including before the IO, who himself acknowledged that evidence emerged that appellant was on his duty at the time of the incident such material partakes of the character of unimpeachable material…To hold otherwise would be to elevate procedural formalism over substantial justice and to compel an undeniably absent accused to undergo the ordeal of a full sessions trial notwithstanding admitted and unimpeachable proof to the contrary.”, the Court observed.

The Court also relied on Rajiv Thapar and Others v. Madan Lal Kapoor, (2013) 3 SCC 330, where it laid down a 4-step test to determine if criminal proceedings can be quashed on the basis of defense material/official records prior to trial.

“Step one: whether the material relied upon by the accused is sound, reasonable, and indubitable i.e. the material is of sterling and impeccable quality?

Step two: whether the material relied upon by the accused would rule out the assertions contained in the charges levelled against the accused i.e. the material is sufficient to reject and overrule the factual assertions contained in the complaint i.e. the material is such as would persuade a reasonable person to dismiss and condemn the factual basis of the accusations as false?

Step three: whether the material relied upon by the accused has not been refuted by the prosecution/complainant; and/or the material is such that it cannot be justifiably refuted by the prosecution/complainant?

Step four: whether proceeding with the trial would result in an abuse of process of the court, and would not serve the ends of justice?

If the answer to all the steps is in the affirmative, the judicial conscience of the High Court should persuade it to quash such criminal proceedings in exercise of power vested in it under Section 482 CrPC. Such exercise of power, besides doing justice to the accused, would save precious court time, which would otherwise be wasted in holding such a trial (as well as proceedings arising therefrom) specially when it is clear that the same would not conclude in the conviction of the accused.”

The test laid down in Rajiv Thapar (supra) was endorsed recently in Pradeep Kumar Kesarwani.

In terms of the aforesaid, the appeal was allowed, and the pending criminal proceedings against the Appellant were quashed, and hereby set aside.

Cause Title: RAHUL VERSUS STATE OF UTTAR PRADESH AND ANOTHER

Citation : 2026 LiveLaw (SC) 786

Click here to download judgment

Appearance:

For Petitioner(s) :Mr. Abhinav Mukerji, Sr. Adv. Ms. Archita Nigam, Adv. Ms. Bihu Sharma, Adv. Mr. Naman Raj Singh, Adv. Mr. Parth Singh, Adv. Ms. Anjali Saxena, Adv. Ms. Akansha, AOR

For Respondent(s) :Dr. Vijendra Singh, AOR Mr. Harsh Pratap Shahi, Adv. Mr. Manish Kumar, Adv. Ms. Somya Chauhan, Adv. Ms. Reena Pandey, AOR Ms. Ishika Neogi, AOR

Related : S. 482 CrPC/S.528 BNSS | Supreme Court Lays Down Four-Step Test For High Courts To Quash Criminal Cases