NDLI: Panchhi and Ors. Etc. Vs. State of U.p.

Content Provider	Supreme Court of India
e-ISSN	30484839
Language	English
Access Restriction	NDLI
Subject Keyword	Indian Penal Code 1860-Section 302/34 Evidence of child witness
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Law Judgement
Jurisdiction	India
Act(s) Referred	Indian Evidence Act, 1872 (1 of 1872) Indian Penal Code (45 of 1860)
Case Type	Appeal
Court	Supreme Court of India
Disposal Nature	Appeal Disposed Off
Headnote	Criminal Law :Indian Penal Code, 1860-Section 302/34-Accused including two ladies~Murdering family of four including child of 5 years-Award of Death Sentence by Sessions Court-Confirmed by High Court-Evidence of attacks and counter attacks between the families prior to the incident. possibility of more skirmishes in the past leading to Venglance-Held, award of alternative sentence of imprisonment for life adequate.Conviction of appellants by Sessions Court-Prosecution relying on a child witness and two Neighbour'-Finding of trial court regarding reliability of testimony-Confirmed by High Court-Held, no scope for error in appreciation of evidence-Appellants cannot escape conviction.Indian Evidence Act, 1872-Evidence of child witness-Aged 5 years-Son of the deceased-Whether could be relied on-Held, the evidence of child to be evaluated with greater circumspection. The appellants who had been living adjacent to the house of the deceased were on inimical terms and underwent petty quarrels. A fortnight prior to the incident the appellants 2 and 3 had a fight with deceased P. Thereafter the appellants armed with weapons like kulhadi and hansia barged into the house of the deceased and killed all the four deceased including their five year old daughter. Both the Trial Court and the High Court concurrently found that the four deceased were murdered by the four accused out of which one died during trial. Both the Courts held that in the brutal nature of the perpetration of the murders, extreme penalties should be imposed and hence death sentence was confirmed. The Trial Court as well as the High Court relied on P.Ws. 1, 3 and 5. Before this Court the appellants contended that it is very risky to place reliance on the evidence of P.W. 1 being a child witness; that the evidence of a child witness is generally unworthy of credence and that the imposition of extreme penalty for all the accused was not legally justified in this case since among the three persons one is a septuagenarian, and other a youth in his prime age and the third a mother with a suckling child, since this case did not project any special feature as distinguished from under brutal murder cases inspite of the number of victims being four including a child; and that the number of victims is not sufficient to make the case so special as to foreclose the next alternative sentence i.e. imprisonment for life.
Judge	Hon'ble Mr. Justice K.T. Thomas
Neutral Citation	1998 INSC 312
Petitioner	Panchhi And Ors. Etc.
Respondent	State Of U.p.
SCR	[1998] Supp. (1) S.C.R. 40
Judgement Date	1998-08-19
Case Number	333

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