Supreme Court - Daily Orders
Veer Bhan vs Prakash on 17 January, 2014
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IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA
CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION
CRIMINAL APPEAL NO.158 OF 2014
(Arising out of SLP(Crl.)No.7254/2013)
VEER BHAN Appellant(s)
VERSUS
PRAKASH & ORS Respondent(s)
O R D E R
Leave granted.
Heard learned counsel for the parties at length. This appeal has been preferred against the impugned judgment and order dated 11.7.2013 passed by the High Court of Rajasthan at Jodhpur allowing the Criminal Revision Petition No.1029/2012 replacing the charges under Section 302 IPC or 302/34 IPC to that under Section 304 Part-1 IPC and 304 Part-I IPC read with Section 34 IPC respectively recording the finding as under:
"Apparently, there was no intention to cause death and the main injury was caused by blunt side of a spade. It was a case of "Knowledge" rather than a case of intentionally causing death"
There was no occasion for the High Court to record this kind of finding of fact at such a preliminary stage for the reason that such a finding may adversely affect the prosecution case at the stage of trial during which the charges can be altered at any stage of trial prior to the delivery of judgment in view of the provision of Section 216 Cr.P.C. and the only requirement is to meet the provisions of Section 217 Cr.P.C.. More so, this Court in Umesh Kumar vs. State of Andhra Pradesh & Anr. 2013 (10) SCC 591 has categorically held that the High Court while dealing with the matter at such a preliminary stage of trial should not record such a finding or alter the charges for the reason that such alteration by the High Court remains subject to alteration by the trial Court itself.
Thus, we set aside the impugned judgment and order of the High Court. The appeal stands disposed of with the direction to the trial Court to proceed in accordance with law and it may alter the charge after examining the evidence on record without being influenced by the order of the High Court impugned before us, if need be.
.......................J. (Dr. B.S. CHAUHAN) .......................J. (J. CHELAMESWAR) NEW DELHI JANUARY 17, 2014.
ITEM NO.49 COURT NO.4 SECTION II
S U P R E M E C O U R T O F I N D I A
RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS
Petition(s) for Special Leave to Appeal (Crl) No(s).7254/2013 (From the judgement and order dated 11/07/2013 in CRLRP No.1029/2012, of The HIGH COURT OF RAJASTHAN AT JODHPUR) VEER BHAN Petitioner(s) VERSUS PRAKASH & ORS Respondent(s) (With appln(s) for stay,bail and office report) Date: 17/01/2014 This Petition was called on for hearing today.
CORAM :
HON’BLE DR. JUSTICE B.S. CHAUHAN HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE J. CHELAMESWAR For Petitioner(s) Mr. Nitin Bhardwaj,Adv.
Mr. Ajit Kumar Gupta,Adv.
For Respondent(s) Ms. Archana Pathak Dave,Adv.
Mr. Milind Kumar,Adv.
Mr. Rajesh Aggarwal,Adv.
Mr. Mridul Aggarwal,Adv.
UPON hearing counsel the Court made the following O R D E R Leave granted.
In terms of the signed order, the appeal stands disposed of with the direction to the trial Court to proceed in accordance with law and it may alter the charge after examining the evidence on record without being influenced by the order of the High Court impugned before us, if need be.
(O.P. Sharma) (M.S. Negi)
Court Master Assistant Registrar
(Signed order is placed on the file)