Here, I wish to jot down some recollections of past cases to make you familiarise with the way criminal justice system works.
Many years ago, a man comes in the village market. 12 people are waiting there with various kinds of arms like swords, sticks etc.
As soon as the man comes in market, he is attacked and is killed. As per my recollection, there may be 30 or more injuries on his body.
It trial court, eye witnesses who saw the incident gave clear evidence.
The trial court convicted all the 12 to life Imprisionment.
They went in appeal to High Court. High Court admitted appeal, but refused bail.
After two years, High Court acquitted all of them.
The judgement was perverse. The Judge did not look at evidence properly. Nor did he discuss why Sessions Judge was wrong.
By giving some superficial reasons, High Court had acquitted all.
The Complainant, the relative of deceased came to Supreme Court and challenged acquittal.
Supreme Court admitted appeal.
After many years, appeal came up for hearing. I was for complainant. I had engaged a Senior Advocate to argue.
To me, judgement of High Court was clearly wrong. All the 12 accused were liable to be sent to jail. And we were likely to succeed in appeal.
As soon as the appeal was called out, the Supreme Court Judges made it clear to Sr Advocate that they are not inclined to go into merits of appeal and are inclined dismiss our appeal.
I was shocked. But the Senior Advocate was cool.
He understood why judges were not inclined to hear appeal even if High Court Judgement was wrong.
He did not argue much. I kept nudging and keep insisting him to fight forcefully.
The Judges saw my impatience. They smiled. Then they looked at Senior Advocate and said,
"Look, we will tell you how judges think. This is not written in any law books. You will not find it in any law reports. But this is how we think.
"Here, one life is lost. Therefore 20 years jail. Here, 12 persons have already spent two years in jail. That means 24 Years have been spent in jail.
That is enough according to us. These are our thumb rules, not reported in law books".
I understood and became calm.
The appeal was dismissed.
Later, I found another reason, why Supreme Court refused to set aside acquittal.
The deceased was a head strong terror man. The women in villages did not feel safe because of vulgarity of deceased. He was a criminal. The 12 villagers had just joined together and had killed him for the peace in village.
Well, the Judges did not say anything. But these facts must have weighed in their minds too.
Haresh Raichura
20/5/13 08:20
Many years ago, a man comes in the village market. 12 people are waiting there with various kinds of arms like swords, sticks etc.
As soon as the man comes in market, he is attacked and is killed. As per my recollection, there may be 30 or more injuries on his body.
It trial court, eye witnesses who saw the incident gave clear evidence.
The trial court convicted all the 12 to life Imprisionment.
They went in appeal to High Court. High Court admitted appeal, but refused bail.
After two years, High Court acquitted all of them.
The judgement was perverse. The Judge did not look at evidence properly. Nor did he discuss why Sessions Judge was wrong.
By giving some superficial reasons, High Court had acquitted all.
The Complainant, the relative of deceased came to Supreme Court and challenged acquittal.
Supreme Court admitted appeal.
After many years, appeal came up for hearing. I was for complainant. I had engaged a Senior Advocate to argue.
To me, judgement of High Court was clearly wrong. All the 12 accused were liable to be sent to jail. And we were likely to succeed in appeal.
As soon as the appeal was called out, the Supreme Court Judges made it clear to Sr Advocate that they are not inclined to go into merits of appeal and are inclined dismiss our appeal.
I was shocked. But the Senior Advocate was cool.
He understood why judges were not inclined to hear appeal even if High Court Judgement was wrong.
He did not argue much. I kept nudging and keep insisting him to fight forcefully.
The Judges saw my impatience. They smiled. Then they looked at Senior Advocate and said,
"Look, we will tell you how judges think. This is not written in any law books. You will not find it in any law reports. But this is how we think.
"Here, one life is lost. Therefore 20 years jail. Here, 12 persons have already spent two years in jail. That means 24 Years have been spent in jail.
That is enough according to us. These are our thumb rules, not reported in law books".
I understood and became calm.
The appeal was dismissed.
Later, I found another reason, why Supreme Court refused to set aside acquittal.
The deceased was a head strong terror man. The women in villages did not feel safe because of vulgarity of deceased. He was a criminal. The 12 villagers had just joined together and had killed him for the peace in village.
Well, the Judges did not say anything. But these facts must have weighed in their minds too.
Haresh Raichura
20/5/13 08:20
