Interference with acquittal limited to perverse findings, where evidence supports only one view and acquittal lacks basis.

In an appeal against acquittal, the Supreme Court reiterated that interference is justified only where the High Court's view is perverse or unsupported by evidence. The appellate court may reappreciate the record, but it must respect the double presumption of innocence after acquittal and adopt a possible view favouring the accused where two reasonable views exist. Here, the High Court had identified serious omissions and contradictions in the injured eye-witnesses' testimony, and the medical evidence also made the prosecution version physically improbable. That assessment was held to be a plausible view on the record, so the acquittal was not disturbed.

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Issues: Whether the acquittal recorded by the High Court called for interference in appeal on the ground that the prosecution evidence of the injured eye-witnesses had been wrongly discarded.

Analysis: In an appeal against acquittal, the appellate court has full power to reappreciate the evidence, but interference is warranted only where substantial reasons exist. The accused enjoys a double presumption of innocence after acquittal, and if two reasonable views are possible, the one favouring the accused must be adopted. On the evidence, the High Court found serious omissions and contradictions in the testimony of the alleged eye-witnesses, and the medical evidence also undermined the prosecution version by showing that the occurrence as narrated was not physically probable. The view taken by the High Court was therefore a plausible one and not perverse.

Conclusion: The acquittal was not liable to be disturbed and the appeal was dismissed.

Ratio Decidendi: Interference with an acquittal is justified only when the view taken is perverse or unsupported by the evidence, and where the findings represent a possible view on the record, the appellate court must not substitute another view merely because a different conclusion is possible.

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