‘Egregious error’ done by HC, state govt‘responsible’ for it: SC
JUDGES HUMANS, THEY MAKE MISTAKES TOO: SC
AmitAnand.Choudhary@timesofindia.com 30.01.2025
New Delhi : Though admitting that Punjab and Haryana high court committed ‘egregious error’ by reversing acquittal order of three people by invoking its revisional jurisdiction, not allowed as per law, and that too without granting them a hearing, Supreme Court, however on Wednesday blamed state govt for it as the public prosecutor did not correct the judge during proceedings.
Reversing the order of the high court which led the accused unjustly subjected to rigorous imprisonment for over three months before SC intervened, a bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and R Mahadevan directed the state to pay them ₹5 lakh each as compensation. “Judges are human beings and at times they do commit mistakes. The sheer pressure of work at times may lead to such errors. At the same time, the defence counsel as well as the public prosecutor owes a duty to correct the court if the court is falling in some error and for all this, we hold the state govt responsible. It is the state govt who appointed the concerned public prosecutor. The state govt should be asked to pay compensation to the three appellants herein,” the bench said.
The bench noted various defects both on procedural aspect as well as law point while convicting them to 20 years after they were acquitted by trial court, including ‘shocking aspect’ of HC relying upon the police statement of a witness under Section 161 of the CrPC instead of his oral testimony before the trial court. Putting the blame on the prosecutor for not correcting the HC, the court said, “the public prosecutor instead of assisting the learned Judges in the right direction by pointing out the correct position of law went to the extent of praying before the court that the appellants herein deserved capital punishment. It is a different thing that high court rejected the prayer.” Full report on www.toi.in
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