Testimony Of Eye Witness Must Not Be Pendulous; It Must Be Free From Blemish & Devoid Of Any Ambiguity: Patna HC
|The Patna High Court while deciding a batch of appeals has observed that the testimony of an eye witness must not be pendulous and that it must be free from blemish and devoid of any ambiguity or uncertainty.
A Division Bench of Justice A.M. Badar and Justice Harish Kumar held, “It is trite principle of criminal jurisprudence that testimony of an eye witness must not be pendulous. There should not be vital contradiction or inconsistency in the testimony of witnesses and it must be free from blemish and devoid of any ambiguity and uncertainty. In criminal law, contradictory and uncorroborated statements cannot be relied upon, much less than forming the basis of conviction.”
The Bench also said that a child witness if found competent to depose to the facts and reliable one, such evidence could be the basis of conviction.
Advocates Anamul Haque, Najmul Hoda, and Sweety Sinha appeared for the appellants while APPs Binod Bihari Singh and Bipin Kumar appeared for the respondents.
Factual Background -
The appellants had challenged the judgment of conviction and the consequent order of sentence passed by the Additional Sessions Judge whereby they were found guilty for the offences under Sections 302/34 of the Indian Penal Code and were sentenced to undergo life imprisonment along with a fine of Rs. 10,000/- each. The deceased (father) and the informant (son) went for preparing Labour Card in the morning at the house of the Mukhiya of the village and returned to their house.
After taking the meal, the deceased went to Gohal and slept in the Palani and in the meantime, the appellants armed with Bhala, Lathi, and Garasa came there. The deceased was then assaulted and his neck was cut down. He sustained cut injury over the palm of his left hand and even then he stood up from the cot but fell down in the Palani where he died.
The High Court in view of the facts and circumstances of the case observed, “… there is no inconsistencies found in the testimonies of the aforenoted witnesses with regard to the date and time of occurrence as well as place of occurrence where the (deceased) Suresh Paswan was killed. … the injury inflicted upon Suresh Paswan was sufficient in the ordinary course of nature to cause his death.”
The Court said that the testimonies of the witnesses are quite consistent and except for minor discrepancies or inconsistencies, nothing has been found that discredited the truthfulness and credibility of the witnesses touching the very foundation of the prosecution case.
“Thus from the analysis of the evidence on record, especially the testimonies of P.W.4 and P.W.5, coupled with the medical evidence, we find that the prosecution has been able to prove the case beyond all its reasonable doubt and there is no perversity in the judgment of conviction”, noted the Court.
Accordingly, the Court dismissed the appeals, upheld the judgment of conviction, and directed the appellants to surrender before the trial court within four weeks.
Cause Title- Subhash Paswan v. The State of Bihar