Supreme Court Directs Jharkhand High Court To Expedite Hearing In Jharkhand Cattle Traders Lynching Case

The Supreme Court has directed Jharkhand High Court to expedite the hearing in the Jharkhand cattle traders lynching case where two persons (Majlum Ansari and Imtiyaz Khan) were killed.

The bench comprising Justice B.R. Gavai and Justice P. Narasimha stated that while they were not inclined to entertain the petition, in the facts and circumstances of the case, the judges of the High Court of Jharkhand were requested to decide the appeal expeditiously and in any case, within a period of one year. 

The development came about after a Special Leave Petition was filed against the Jharkhand High Court's judgment and Order dated 13.04.2022 whereby the High Court had suspended the sentences of the three of the respondent convicts and released them on bail, during the pendency of the appeal before the High Court. Earlier, in 2018, a Trial Court had convicted 8 men under Section 302/34 of the Indian Penal Code for murdering two persons, including one thirteen-year-old boy. The prosecution had submitted that the accused persons had made threats of dire consequences against the adult deceased if he did not give up the business of cattle trading.

The petition, moved by Md. Nijamuddin, the informant and one of the eye-witnesses in the case, through Advocate Talha Abdul Rahman submitted that the High Court had erred in relying merely upon the FIR, which was diametrically opposed to the well settled principle that an FIR did not contain all the facts and thus could not be taken as an encyclopaedia of the incident in question. As per the petition, the High Court, in its order had solely relied upon the FIR and had not considered other material aspects, testimonies, and evidences. It further noted that there was a presumption of guilt against the Respondent-convicts as they had already been convicted by the Trial Court under Sections 302/34 IPC. Further, as per the petition, there were two other eye-witnesses other than the Petitioner who had supported the prosecution's case and that the High Court had erred in not appreciating the same. 

As per the petition, once the trial was concluded and the accused had been found guilty, the effect of bail granted during trial lost significance.

Accordingly, the petition had prayed for the court to grant Special Leave to Appeal Against the judgment and Order dated 13.04.2022 passed by the Hon'ble High Court of Jharkhand at Ranchi. In the alternative, the petitioner had prayed for an interim relief in form of the grant of ad-interim stay of the impugned Order dated 13.04.2022 passed by the  High Court of Jharkhand at Ranchi, during the pendency of the present petition. 

CASE TITLE: MD. NIJAMUDDIN v. THE STATE OF JHARKHAND & ORS. | Diary No(s). 19812/2022

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