TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2009 (10) TMI 954
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....y, A-2 (father of A-1). Appellant Arulvelu has been convicted under Section 304B of the Indian Penal Code (for short `IPC') and sentenced to seven years rigorous imprisonment and he has been further convicted under Section 498A IPC and sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for a period of two years and to pay a fine of Rs. 1,000/-, in default to suffer three months rigorous imprisonment. Appellant accused No. 2 has been imposed sentence of fine of Rs. 1,000/- under Section 498A of IPC, in default to suffer simple imprisonment for a period of three months. 4. Before the marriage of Arulvelu with Mangayarkarasi (since deceased), an agreement was entered into to the effect that towards the consideration of the marriage, deceased's father P.W.1 would give gold ornaments of the weight of 50 sovereigns along with other articles and a car to Arulvelu. 5. The father of the deceased could give ornaments of the weight of only 30 sovereigns of gold and also could not give the car as undertaken. Instead of giving the remaining ornaments of 20 sovereigns and a car, P.W.1 in all gave only Rs. 5,000/- in small installments. This was the main cause of annoyance of Arulvelu and his famil....
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....sed which ultimately led to suicide. 11. The trial court in its lengthy and comprehensive judgment has dealt with the prosecution evidence and also all the 33 material exhibits. According to the learned trial Judge, the evidence of P.W.1 that he agreed to give balance ornaments was not corroborated by P.W.3. According to the trial court, P.W.1 had admitted that for the first time, he told the court that accused No. 2 demanded 40 sovereigns and the same was not stated either before the police officers or during Revenue Divisional Officer's enquiry. According to the trial Judge, P.Ws. 15, 17 and 20 would depose that P.W.1 has not told about the demand of ornaments during his cross-examination. The trial court further held that P.W.1 had admitted that he did not tell about the demand of 40 sovereigns of gold by accused No. 2 during the course of investigation, it is his case that an agreement was reached at 35 sovereigns. This has been corroborated by P.W.3 also. P.W.15, the Revenue Division Officer who conducted the enquiry and who also held the inquest came to the conclusion that the death was due to cruelty meted out to the deceased by way of demand of dowry. He has stated i....
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.... P.W.1. As per the version of the accused, the decision of the Panchayat not permitting the deceased to go to her parents perhaps led to suicide. The trial court after carefully examining the entire evidence acquitted the accused. 14. According to the High Court, if she (the deceased) had no problem in her marital house and she was living peacefully with her husband and in-laws, what was the necessity for her to commit suicide? Why should she write in her suicide note to leave her children in her mother's house? According to the High Court, unless an intolerable harassment was meted out to her, there was absolutely no necessity for her to write like this that the children be handed over to her mother's house. Therefore, the High Court held that, in all probabilities, there was demand of dowry and the deceased was harassed by the first accused and therefore, she committed suicide. 15. The High Court set aside the judgment of the trial court on the count that the trial court gave undue emphasis on the minor inconsistencies and contradictions. The High Court discarded the version of the trial court regarding P.W.1's deposition for the first time in court regarding de....
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....rt failed to consider that the marriage took place in the year 1983 and the deceased committed suicide in the year 1989 i.e. after more than six years of the marriage. There are two small children out of the wedlock. It is quite improbable that ordinarily there would be consistent demands of dowry after six years. The fact of consistent demands is not established from clear evidence of the prosecution. (4) The distance between the matrimonial home and the parental home of the deceased is merely one kilometer. There are many houses around the house of the accused. It is submitted that there was neither a whisper nor any complaint was filed by P.W.1 before the deceased committed suicide. (5) It appears from the statement under Section 313 IPC that A-1 wanted his wife (deceased) to keep some distance from her parental home. It transpired in the meeting of the Panchayat that to settle the dispute between the husband and wife and to reduce the affinity of the wife (deceased) towards her parental home (One kilometer away from the parental home), the Panchayat took the decision that both the families should not visit each other. The impact of the decision of Panchayat on....
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....s dealing with the order of acquittal. (12) There are material contradictions in the statements of P.W.1 and P.W.3. P.W.1 says after the birth of first child there was demand. Whereas P.W.3 says after 6-7 months of the marriage there was demand. Further P.W.1 says that 20 days before the occurrence A-2 and A-3 said that customary gifts were not good. Whereas P.W.3 says that after 6-7 months of 1^st incident deceased was told that the articles were not good. P.W.1 says 30 sovereigns. However, P.W.3 says 35 sovereigns. P.W.1 has stated that he said to A-2 that he could give 20 sovereign later on. However, P.W.3 does not corroborate the same. Though P.W.3 has stated that A-2 demanded car during the marriage negotiation, however, P.W.3 has not corroborated the evidence of P.W.1 with regard to the demand of car. It is submitted that none of the investigating officers have supported P.W.1 with regard to the demand of jewels, car, cash and/or with regard to harassment to the deceased due to non fulfillment of the above said items. (13) A. Periyasamy P.W.3 has not been examined by the DSP Sivanandam, RDO, Karuppusamy and others. Only CB CID Velu examined him. CB CID, Velu....
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....od that Arulvelu and Mangaiyarkarasi were living a happy matrimonial life. There is a Car in my son Sivakumar's name TNC-4128. Its RC was in the name of Ramalingam S/o Palaniappa Mudhaliar." (17) The Assistant Judicial Magistrate PW 11 has stated that crime number of Exhibit A-1 has been manipulated. Further, P.W.13 has stated that "Ramalingam has given only one complaint on that day. Exhibit A13 is the first original copy. Exhibit A18 is the original of another set of copies taken. The person who has written Exhibit 13 has not written Exhibit A18". The trial court has also discussed the discrepancy with regard to Exh. A-13 and Exh.A-18. (18) R. Murugesan P.W.15, RDO who prepared the inquest report has admitted that Yashoda (P.W.2) was examined on 30.03.89. He also stated that nearly 1000 houses would be there. It was crowded area with many houses. However, no neighbour was examined as a witness. Further, P.W.17 has admitted that A-1 said to him that he (A-1) brought the doctor. However, P.W.15 did not believe the same. It is submitted that P.W.15 has not given any cogent reason for disbelieving the same. It is submitted that the conduct of P.W.15 (the RDO) wa....
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.... following words: The immediate temptation for her to commit suicide appears to be the demand of a car and subsequent quarrel of the first accused with the mother of the deceased. She has died in her in-law's house. Why should she commit suicide if she was happily living with the first accused? 21. These are some of the material and vital aspects which clearly demonstrate that the trial court has carefully analyzed the entire evidence on record and the view taken by the trial court is certainly a possible or plausible view. 22. In our considered opinion, the approach of the High Court in the impugned judgment is not in consonance with the settled principles of criminal jurisprudence. The High Court while reversing the judgment of the trial court observed that "in all probabilities, I am inclined to hold that there was demand of dowry and the deceased was harassed by the first accused and therefore, she committed suicide." In criminal cases the conviction can be sustained only when there is clear evidence beyond reasonable doubt. The accused cannot be convicted on the ground that in all probabilities the accused may have committed the crime. The approach of the High Court ....
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....mma and Anr. AIR 1977 Kar. 58 the Court observed that any order made in conscious violation of pleading and law is a perverse order. 30. In Moffett v. Gough 1 L.R. 1r. 371 the Court observed that a perverse verdict may probably be defined as one that is not only against the weight of evidence but is altogether against the evidence. 31. In Godfrey v. Godfrey 106 NW 814 the Court defined `perverse' as turned the wrong way, not right; distorted from the right; turned away or deviating from what is right, proper, correct etc. 32. The expression "perverse" has been defined by various dictionaries in the following manner: 1. Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary of Current English Sixth Edition PERVERSE: Showing deliberate determination to behave in a way that most people think is wrong, unacceptable or unreasonable. 2. Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English - International Edition PERVERSE: Deliberately departing from what is normal and reasonable. 3. The New Oxford Dictionary of English - 1998 Edition PERVERSE: Law (of a verdict) against the weight of evidence or the direction of the judge on a point of law. ....
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....ent in judicial review was raised and entertained was not appropriate. In our opinion, the High Court was in error in constituting itself into a court of appeal against the assessment. While it was open to the respondent to have raised and for the High Court to have considered whether the denial of relief under the proviso to Section 39(5) was proper or not, it was not open to the High Court re-appreciate the primary or perceptive facts which were otherwise within the domain of the fact-finding authority under the statute. The question whether the transactions were or were not sales exigible to sales tax constituted an exercise in recording secondary or inferential facts based on primary facts found by the statutory authorities. But what was assailed in review was, in substance, the correctness - as distinguished from the legal permissibility - of the primary or perceptive facts themselves. It is, no doubt, true that if a finding of fact is arrived at by ignoring or excluding relevant material or by taking into consideration irrelevant material or if the finding so outrageously defies logic as to suffer from the vice of irrationality incurring the blame of being perverse, then, the....
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....e legal position as under: (1) An appellate court has full power to review, reappreciate and reconsider the evidence upon which the order of acquittal is founded. (2) The Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 puts no limitation, restriction or condition on exercise of such power and an appellate court on the evidence before it may reach its own conclusion, both on questions of fact and of law. (3) Various expressions, such as, "substantial and compelling reasons", "good and sufficient grounds", "very strong circumstances", "distorted conclusions", "glaring mistakes", etc. are not intended to curtail extensive powers of an appellate court in an appeal against acquittal. Such phraseologies are more in the nature of "flourishes of language" to emphasise the reluctance of an appellate court to interfere with acquittal than to curtail the power of the court to review the evidence and to come to its own conclusion. (4) An appellate court, however, must bear in mind that in case of acquittal, there is double presumption in favour of the accused. Firstly, the presumption of innocence is available to him under the fundamental principle of criminal jurisprudenc....
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....n a number of cases." 41. Careful scrutiny of all these judgments lead to the definite conclusion that the appellate court should be very slow in setting aside a judgment of acquittal particularly in a case where two views are possible. The trial court judgment can not be set aside because the appellate court's view is more probable. The appellate court would not be justified in setting aside the trial court judgment unless it arrives at a clear finding on marshalling the entire evidence on record that the judgment of the trial court is either perverse or wholly unsustainable in law. 42. In State of Uttar Pradesh v. Banne Alias Baijnath and Ors. (2009) 4 SCC 271 a two-Judge Bench of this Court of which one of us (Bhandari, J.) was a member had an occasion to deal with this controversy in detail has laid down some of the circumstances in which this Court would be justified in interfering with the judgment of the High Court. The circumstances discussed in the judgment are illustrative not exhaustive. i) The High Court's decision is based on totally erroneous view of law by ignoring the settled legal position; ii) The High Court's conclusions are co....