TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2004 (11) TMI 565
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....r away from her matrimonial home. On 25.10.1995 she was found dead. The accused-husband had informed her parents of her death. It is the case of her mother that soon after the incident, a First Information Report was lodged with the police alleging harassment and cruel treatment to her by the accused. The said FIR has not been produced. The FIR which was produced was lodged on 22.12.1995 which led to the prosecution, and acquittal of the accused by the trial court. In the course of investigation a suicide note was seized from the mother-in-law of the deceased. The contents of the suicide note read that the deceased had developed illicit relationship with some other person and it was no longer possible for her to deceive her husband. It was further written in the suicide note that she was lucky to get such a husband and her father should treat him well and arrange for his second marriage after her death. In his post-mortem report the Autopsy Surgeon opined that the cause of death was poisoning and also hanging as ligature marks were found on her neck. The prosecution examined mother of the deceased as PW8and three other witnesses living in the neighbourhood. The mother in her dep....
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....the explanation given in the FIR does not appear to be convincing. It is the settled principle that there is every possibility of concoction, embellishment, motivation in a belated FIR I have already observed that PW 8 has tried to develop the prosecution case by introducing some new stories which is far away from the prosecution case and, as such, she cannot be considered to be faithful witness. Moreover she has failed to explain by convincing reason about inordinate delay in lodging the FIR. Her evidence has not been corroborated by a single prosecution witness even." On the medical evidence, the trial court observes thus: "That the Autopsy Surgeon had recorded that there was a ligature mark on her neck and the cause of death was indosulfan-poison in her body." On the evidence produced, the trial court has recorded his conclusion that evidence of cruel treatment to the deceased is not reliable and the accused cannot be held guilty of the suicidal death. The trial acquitted all of them. The mother of the deceased preferred a revision to the High Court. The High Court did take note of the various infirmities in the prosecution case, such as seizure of suicide note by the invest....
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.... on the scope of identical provisions of revision in the old Code of Criminal Procedure. "That it was open to a High Court in revision and at the instance of a private party to set aside an order of acquittal though the State might not have appealed. But such jurisdiction should be exercised only in exceptional cases, as where a glaring defect in the procedure or a manifest error of law leading to a flagrant miscarriage of justice has taken place. When Section 439(4) of the Code forbids the High Court from converting a finding of acquittal into one of conviction, it is not proper that the High Court should do the same indirectly by ordering a retrial. It was not possible to lay down the criteria for by which to judge such exceptional cases. It was, however, clear that the High Court would be justified in interfering in cases such as (1) where the trial court had wrongly shut out evidence sought to be adduced by the prosecution (2) where the appeal court had wrongly held evidence admitted by the trial court to be inadmissible (3) where material evidence has been overlooked either by the trial court or the court of appeal or, (4) where the acquittal was based on a compounding of the ....
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....set right some of the uncalled for observations made by the High Court in the impugned judgment directing retrial. The cases cited by the learned counsel show the settled legal position that the revisional jurisdiction, at the instance of the complainant, has to be exercised by the High Court only in very exceptional cases where the High Court finds defect of procedure or manifest error of law resulting in flagrant miscarriage of justice. The State has chosen not to prefer any appeal against acquittal. In the present appeal by the complainant it has filed a counter-affidavit and tried to support the order of remand passed by the High Court. Without going into the correctness of all the observations made by the High Court in the impugned judgment, we find it necessary to clarify that the High Court ought not to have directed the trial court to hold a de novo trial and take decision on the basis of so called 'suggested formula.' The High Court in its concluding part of the judgment does state that any observation in its judgment should not influence the mind of the trial court but, at the same time, the High Court directs the trial court to take 'a fresh decision from ....