NDLI: Digamber Vaishnav & Anr. Vs. State of Chhattisgarh

Content Provider	Supreme Court of India
e-ISSN	30484839
Language	English
Access Restriction	NDLI
Subject Keyword	testimony of child witness circumstantial evidence ss. 302/34 and 394/34 Murder and Robbery
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(s) Referred	Referred Case 0 Referred Case 1 Referred Case 2 Referred Case 3 Referred Case 4 Referred Case 5 Referred Case 6 Referred Case 7 Referred Case 8 Referred Case 9
Case Type	Appeal
Court	Supreme Court of India
Disposal Nature	Appeal Allowed
Headnote	Penal Code, 1860:ss. 302/34 and 394/34 – Murder and Robbery – Prosecution for – Based on circumstantial evidence – Prosecution relied on testimony of child witness; recoveries made u/s. 27 of Evidence Act;fingerprint report; FSL report; motive of committing robbery and on evidence of last seen together – Courts below convicted the accused and sentenced them to death – On appeal, held: In the facts of the case, the circumstances on which prosecution case was based, cannot be relied on – There was unexplained delay in reporting the crime – The prosecution has withheld the best evidence– In the circumstance of the case, it cannot be inferred that the appellants had committed the crime.Criminal Jurisprudence:Burden of proof – Held: The burden of proof squarely rest son the prosecution – The general burden never shifts – Strong suspicion, strong coincidences and grave doubt cannot take the place of legal proof – There can be no conviction on the basis of surmises and conjectures or suspicion – Evidence.Administration of criminal justice – In Criminal cases, if two views are possible: one pointing to the guilt and other to the innocence of the accused, the view favourable to the accused, should be adopted – This principle has special relevance to the cases based on circumstantial evidence.Witness:Child witness – Credibility – Need for corroboration – Held:The court as a prudence seeks corroboration to the testimony of child witness – There is no rule of practice that in every case evidence of child witness has to be corroborated – Section 118 of Evidence Act governs competence of a witness including child witness – Only precaution while assessing the evidence of child witness is that the witness must be a reliable one.Evidence Act, 1872:s. 27 – Scope of – Held: Under s. 27 it is not the discovery of every fact that is admissible, but the discovery of relevant fact alone is admissible.Evidence:Circumstantial evidence – Last seen theory – Reliance on –Held: The circumstance of last seen together cannot by itself form the basis of holding accused guilty of offence – To constitute the last seen together factor as an incriminating circumstance, there must be close proximity between the time of seeing and recovery of dead body.
Judge	Hon'ble Mr. Justice S. Abdul Nazeer
Neutral Citation	2019 INSC 308
Petitioner	Digamber Vaishnav & Anr.
Respondent	State Of Chhattisgarh
SCR	[2019] 2 S.C.R. 844
Judgement Date	2019-03-05
Case Number	428

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