The Supreme Court has expressed serious concern at the shoddy trial of criminal cases in Bihar, and asked the Patna High Court to take immediate corrective steps.
A Bench Justices Aftab Alam and R.M. Lodha, while setting aside the life sentence awarded to a man in a murder case, said: “We are constrained to say that this is not an isolated case, but it is almost a stereotype. It is our experience that in criminal trials in Bihar, no proper attention is paid to the framing of charges and the examination of the accused under Section 313 Cr.PC, the two very important stages in a criminal trial.”
Writing the judgment, Justice Alam said: “The framing of charges and examination of the accused are mostly done in the most unmindful and mechanical manner. We wish that the Patna High Court should take note of the neglectful way in which some of the courts appear to be conducting trials of serious offences, and take appropriate corrective steps.”
In the instant case, the trial court awarded the life sentence to Shambhu Sharma in the case of killing of Narain Kunwar, though his name did not figure as one of the accused in the first information report. As the High Court dismissed his appeal, he moved the Supreme Court.
Flawed charge sheet
Allowing the appeal, the Bench agreed with his submission that the conviction could not be sustained in view of the flawed charge sheet. It pointed out that there was no clear evidence against the appellant, and it would not be wholly safe to maintain his conviction under Section 302 (murder) of the IPC. Applying the rule of caution, he must be given the benefit of the doubt.
The Bench directed the immediate release of Sharma unless he was wanted in some other criminal case.
