Appeal Against Acquittals To Be Disposed Of On Merits By Passing A Reasoned Order, SC Tells Allahabad HC [Read Order]

High Court has not even stated facts and nature of evidence so as to make out that the conclusion of the trial court was not perverse, the Bench observed.

Disposing of an appeal against a ‘cryptic’ order passed by a high court in a government appeal against the acquittal of an accused by a trial court in Uttar Pradesh, the Supreme Court has observed that while examining an appeal filed against the finding of acquittal of the accused on the charge framed against him, the high court is required to consider the case on merits and pass a reasoned order.

Although the apex court Bench comprising Justice V Gopala Gowda and Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel found that the view taken by the trial court is possible view, it observed that the judgment and order of the high court is cryptic and erroneous as it has not even stated facts and nature of evidence so as to make out that the conclusion of the trial court was not perverse.

In the instant case, the trial court in 1995 had acquitted a person accused under sections 147, 148, 149, 302, 201 IPC, for his alleged involvement in an incident which took place in 1985. The appeal filed by the government against this acquittal was dismissed by the high court in 2015, vide a single page order without even narrating the facts involved in the case.

The Supreme Court then directed the Registry to send the copy of this order to bring it to the notice of the Allahabad High Court for taking appropriate steps.

Read the Order here.