Revisional interference, illegal search, and cow slaughter offences: concurrent findings and seizure were upheld despite the search defect.

Revisional jurisdiction is supervisory and should not be used to disturb concurrent findings on identification unless there is a glaring legal error or miscarriage of justice. An illegality in search does not, by itself, invalidate a seizure or the prosecution case; the seized material remains assessable on the evidence. Under the cow slaughter prohibition discussed, conviction does not require proof that the accused owned or consciously possessed the premises where slaughter occurred, because the offence is complete upon proof of slaughter in violation of the statutory ban, subject only to unproved exceptions.

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Issues: (i) whether the High Court could, in revision, upset concurrent findings of fact on identification of the accused; (ii) whether an illegal search vitiated the seizure and the prosecution case; and (iii) whether conviction under the cow slaughter statute required proof of ownership or conscious possession of the house where slaughter occurred.

Issue (i): whether the High Court could, in revision, upset concurrent findings of fact on identification of the accused.

Analysis: Revisional jurisdiction is supervisory in nature and is to be exercised only in exceptional cases involving glaring procedural defect, manifest error of law, or flagrant miscarriage of justice. Where the trial court and the appellate court have recorded concurrent findings on identification based on evidence, the revisional court ought not to interfere merely by reappreciating facts, especially when the conclusion reached is unsupported by the evidence relied upon below.

Conclusion: The High Court was not justified in interfering with the concurrent findings on identification.

Issue (ii): whether an illegal search vitiated the seizure and the prosecution case.

Analysis: An illegality in search does not, by itself, invalidate the seizure of articles. The proper course is to scrutinize the evidence relating to seizure with care, but the mere defect in search procedure does not, without more, destroy the evidentiary value of the recovered material.

Conclusion: The search objection did not render the seizure or the prosecution case unsustainable.

Issue (iii): whether conviction under the cow slaughter statute required proof of ownership or conscious possession of the house where slaughter occurred.

Analysis: The statutory scheme prohibits slaughter of a cow in any place, subject only to the specified exceptions. The offence is complete upon proof of slaughter in contravention of the prohibition and does not depend on proof that the accused owned or had conscious possession of the premises where the act occurred. The exceptions were not established in the present case, and the defence pressed by the High Court had no basis in the text of the Act.

Conclusion: Proof of ownership or conscious possession of the house was not required for conviction under the statute.

Final Conclusion: The High Court's interference was held unsustainable, the conviction restored, and the accused remained liable under the prohibition against cow slaughter.

Ratio Decidendi: Revisional interference with concurrent findings of fact is impermissible in the absence of exceptional legal error or miscarriage of justice; an illegal search does not by itself vitiate seizure; and where a statute prohibits slaughter in any place subject to specified exceptions, ownership or conscious possession of the premises is not an ingredient of the offence.

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