GA/89/2020
2022 Latest Caselaw 2083 UK

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                                  SPLA No. 143 of 2020
                                  With
                                  GA No. 89 of 2020
                                  Hon'ble S.K. Mishra, J.

Hon'ble Alok Kumar Verma, J.

Mr. J.S. Virk, the learned Deputy Advocate General for the State of Uttarakhand/appellant.

Mr. T.A. Khan, the learned Senior Advocate assisted by Ms. Sadaf, the learned counsel for the respondent.

The learned Deputy Advocate General undertakes to file the translated copy of the impugned judgment later on, as and when, directed by the Court. Hence, the defect, as pointed out by the Registry, is ignored for the time being.

This is an Appeal against a judgment of acquittal. The appeal has been preferred by the State with an application for leave to appeal.

We have carefully considered the materials available on record. It is apparent from the record that there is no evidence of sterling quality, which would lead this Court to come to the conclusion that, the appreciation of evidence adopted by the learned 1st Additional Sessions Judge, Nainital, is unreasonable and he come to a perverse conclusion. It is already a settled principle of law that a judgment of acquittal can be overturned by the appellate court only if it comes to the conclusion that there are substantial and compelling reasons for doing so.

In this case, the learned Deputy Advocate General has failed to impress upon the Court that there are substantial and compelling reasons for overturning the judgment of acquittal, prima facie, to grant the leave.

We have already taken the view in several cases that the principle, that guide, an appeal against acquittal also has to be looked into, prima facie, to decide whether to grant the leave to appeal or not.

In this case, though, there are some materials regarding the ill- treatment that was meted out to the deceased, but, there is no conclusive evidence on record to come to the conclusion that the appellant was, in fact, abetting the suicide of the deceased.

In that view of matter, we do not find any plausible ground to grant the leave to appeal against acquittal of the respondent. Hence, the Special Leave to Appeal is hereby dismissed being devoid of merit. Consequently, the Government Appeal against acquittal is dismissed as no leave is granted by this Court for preferring the appeal against the acquittal and the same is not maintainable.

(Alok Kumar Verma, J.) (S.K. Mishra, J.) 12.07.2022 SB/SK