The Madras High Court Bench here has come down heavily upon a Sessions Court for having convicted five people under wrong provisions of law in a highway robbery case and set aside the conviction as well as sentences imposed on them not only for the mistake committed by the lower court but also for want of reliable evidence against them.
Passing common orders on individual appeals preferred by them, Justice P.R. Shivakumar pointed out that the Sessions Judge had wrongly convicted the appellants under Sections 392 (robbery) and 397 (robbery or dacoity with attempt to cause death or grievous injury) of the Indian Penal Code separately and imposed punishments under both the legal provisions.
“Without considering the fact that Section 397 of IPC is not an independent penal provision and it should only be read with Section 392, the learned judge seems to have imposed separate punishment for Section 397. That itself will show the improper approach made by the learned Judicial Magistrate and even non-application of mind to the penal provisions,” the judge said.
He also went on to state: “The above said observation is made to strengthen the conclusion that even though the prosecution had miserably failed to prove its case that the accused were the persons who committed the highway robbery , the learned trial judge rendered an erroneous finding with premeditation and blindfolded.”
Grave error
Pointing out that the appellants had been accused of waylaying a goods van at Cumbum Mettu, when it was returning to Cumbum in Theni district after delivering grapes to a merchant in Kerala, and robbing Rs.1.87 lakh on April 26, 1998, the judge said that the trial court committed a “grave error” by convicting the appellants in the absence of clinching evidence to prove their guilt.
