SUPREME COURT JUDGEMENT WITHOUT DATE !!!

SC pulls up Jharkhand HC for writing confused judgment

The Supreme Court has pulled up Jharkhand High Court as well as trial court for writing confused judgment while dealing with a murder case. A bench comprising justices VS Sirpurkar and RM Lodha while acquitting a 75-year-old appellant noted ‘We are constrained to observe that the whole attitude has been extremely casual both on the part of Session judge as well as the High Court, resulting in such colossal confusion.’ Appellant Deomuni Sharma was charged with offences under section 147,148,149 read with section 302 of the IPC by the trial court. He was however, sentenced to ten years imprisonment for an offence under section 307 of the IPC. High court however, proceeded under the impression that the appellant was convicted under section 302 and modified his non existent conviction to section 304 Part 1 IPC and reduced the sentence to 7 years. In short, the High Court did not even bother to realise that Deomuni Sharma was only convicted for offence in respect of section 307 read with section 149 IPC and not under section 302 IPC. The incident took place on November 12, 1994 in village Mauza Hirapur in which one person Janardan Singh, was killed in land dispute. Justice Sirpurkar writing one page judgment for the bench noted ‘Once it is clear cut finding by the High Court, that the appellant fired in the air only with an idea to scare away the aggressor and in pursuance of right of private defence of his property and life and once it is proved, that he also suffered some injuries though superficial, his use of gun only for that purpose cannot be covered under section 27 of the Arms act either. Again it is not the case of prosecution that appellant did not have the license for the rifle that he alleged to have used by firing in the air.’ Interestingly the Supreme Court judgment also does not have the date of judgment.