Reiterating the direction issued in an earlier order that the record of the Trial Court should not be referred to as “Lower Court Record”, the Supreme Court has asked the High Courts to take note of the same and act upon it.

The Appeal before the Apex Court was filed against the judgment of the Allahabad High Court. The impugned judgment upheld the conviction of the two appellants for the offences punishable under Section 302 and Section 307 read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (IPC). Both of them were sentenced to suffer life imprisonment.

The Division Bench of Justice Abhay S Oka and Justice Augustine George Masih observed, “Before we part with the judgment, we reiterate the direction issued in the order dated 8th February 2024, that the record of the Trial Court should not be referred to as “Lower Court Record”. Describing any Court as a “Lower Court” is against the ethos of our Constitution. The Registry has issued a Circular dated 28th February 2024 for giving effect to the order. The High Courts must take note of the above direction and act upon the same.”

AOR Vikrant Singh Bais represented the Appellants Sr. Additional Advocate General K Parmeshwar represented the Respondent.

Factual Background

It was the case of the Prosecution that PW4 (Amir Hussain) was sleeping under a Babool tree, and the deceased (Sukha) was sleeping in his hut. On the intervening night of May 4-5, 1981, Hussain woke up at 2 a.m. to the sound of a firearm being shot. Other witnesses also arrived at the scene, where they heard a voice from the hut of the deceased and a gunshot. They saw the first appellant armed with a country-made pistol & danda and the second appellant armed with a knife. The accused allegedly had a scuffle with the deceased and PW-7, who were allegedly in an illicit relationship. The second Appellant allegedly inflicted an injury to the neck of PW-7 using his knife.

The accused fled, and the deceased was found trembling on account of injuries near his hut, and eventually succumbed to the injuries. The Trial Court convicted the appellants for the offences alleged against them, and a sentence of life imprisonment was imposed. The Trial Court acquitted the first accused as he had only held a danda, and no injury marks were found on the deceased or PW-7 that were made using a danda. The present appellants are accused 2 and 3. They had preferred an appeal before the High Court, but the same was dismissed. Aggrieved thereby, they approached the Apex Court.

Reasoning

On the facts of the case, the Bench mentioned that the prosecution had not conducted a fair investigation and had suppressed important material in the form of affidavits. As per the Bench, the failure to conduct further investigation based on the affidavits went to the root of the matter.

“Therefore, this is a case where there is failure on the part of the High Court and the Session Court to consider the cross-examination of PW-10 and the suppression of the affidavits by the prosecution. These highly relevant aspects have been completely overlooked by the High Court”, it said.

The Apex Court also took note of the direction issued in an earlier order that the record of the Trial Court should not be referred to as “Lower Court Record”. The Bench asked the High Courts to take note of this direction and act upon the same.

The Bench further stated that the failure to recover the weapons of offence also became relevant in the background of these circumstances.

Thus, allowing the appeals, the Bench acquitted the appellants.

Cause Title: Sakhawat and Anr. v. State of Uttar Pradesh (Neutral Citation: 2025 INSC 777)

Appearance:

Appellant: AOR Vikrant Singh Bais

Respondent: Sr. Additional Advocate General K Parmeshwar, AOR Sudeep Kumar, Advocate Manisha

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Justice Abhay S OkaJustice Augustine George Masih

Tulip Kanth

Assistant Editor

Tulip Kanth is an Assistant Editor at Verdictum having over 5 years of experience in the field of legal journalism and editing. She extensively covers judgments of the Supreme Court, High Courts as well as Tribunals. She has previously worked with a legal publishing website where she oversaw the work of other editors and has also created updates on notifications of different Government Ministries. She holds an English Honours Degree from SGTB Khalsa College, Delhi University and has completed her LLB course with specialisation in Corporate Law from Amity University.