BHAGWANDAS versus THE STATE OF RAJASTHAN

Citation: [1957] 1 S.C.R. 854 · Decided: 02-04-1957 · Supreme Court of India · Bench: NATWARLAL HARILAL BHAGWATI · Disposal: Appeal(s) allowed
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Judgment (excerpt)

1957 
854 
SUPREME COURT REPORTS 
BHAGWANDAS 
ti. 
THE STATE OF RAJASTHAN 
(BHAGWATI and J. L. KAPUR JJ.) 
[1957] 
Appeal against acquittal-JV hen High Court may interfere-· 
Dying 
declaration-Value 
of-Expert 
evidence-Discrediting 
by 
reference to text books-Practice-Appreciation of evidence-Inter· 
/erence by Supreme Court. 
The l-Iigh Court should not set asi<lc an acquittal unless there 
are "subst:intial and compelling" reasons for doing so. 
St1ra7pal Singh v. State, (1912) S.C.R. 193, A7mcr Singh '" The 
State of P11n7ab, (1953) S.C.R. 418, Aher Raia Khima '"The State 
of Saurashtra, (1955) 2 S.C.R. 1285, followed. 
It is not a satisfactory way of disposing of the evi<lence of Jn 
expert witness to discredit it by reference to text books unless the 
passages \vhich are sought to discredit his opinion are put to hiin. 
Sunder/al v. The State of Madhya Pradesh, A.LR. 
(1954) 
S.C. 28, followed. 
Although the Supreme CouTt will not interfere with the find-
ings of the High Court because its conclusions on the e\·i<lence as 
to the guilt or innocence oi the ai.:LuscJ Jifler from that oi Lhe 
High Court, yet \vhcrc the evidence is such that no tribunal could 
legitin1ate\y infer fron1 it that the accused is guilty the Supreme 
Court \voul<l set aside the conviction. 
Stephen Seneviratne v. 'The King, A.LR. ( 1936) tl.c:. 289, 
relied on. 
CRIMINAL 
APPELLATE 
JURISDICTION : 
Criminal 
Appeal No. 50 of 1957. 
Appeal by special leave from the judgment and 
order dated January 27, 1956, of the Rajasthan High 
Court at Jodhpur in Criminal Appeal No. 119 of 1954 
arising out of the judgment and order dated March 23, 
1954, of the Court of the Sessions Judge at Ganganagar 
in Original Criminal Case No. 74 of 1953. 
Moh an Behari Lal, for the appellant. 
Kan Singh and T. M. Sen, for the respondent. 
1957. April 2. The Judgment of the Court was 
delivered by 
KAPUR 
J.-Bhagwandas 
and 
Netram 
are 
two 
brothers who along with Mt. Rameshwari, a daughter 
• 
S.C.R. 
SUPREME COURT REPORTS 
855 
of the former, were tried by the Sessions Judge of 
Ganganagar for an offence under s. 302 of the Indian 
Penal Code but were acquitted. On appeal to the High 
Court of Rajasthan, the order of acquittal of Bhagwan-
das and Netram was reversed and they were convicted 
under s. 302 read with s. 34 and sentenced to trans-
portation for life. The order as to Mt. Rameshwari 
was affirmed and she was acquitted. The convicted 
persons have obtained Special Leave. to appeal under 
Art. 136 of the Constitution. 
The appeal is founded on two grounds : 
(I) that there was no evidence against the appel-
lants sufficient to warrant a conviction and (2) that 
there were no compelling reasons for reversal of the 
judgment of acquittal. 
According to the prosecution the canal after a 
temporary closure restarted flowing on May 5, 1953. 
And although it was not his turn of water the deceased 
Shivlal was allowed to take the water to irrigate his 
fields. 
On May 6 the canal was flowing to its full 
capacity and Shivlal was to take his turn of water 
which was of 6 hours duration from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. 
but he watered his lands from 8 a.m. to 10-30 a.m. 
because the village diggi (pond) which was empty had 
to be filled up. Mirab Ram Karan P.W. 1 with the 
consent of Shivlal diverted the water for the purpose 
of filling up the diggi, promising him (Shivlal) to get 
him the rest of his turn of water, i.e., for 3! hours 
after the diggi had been filled up. The diggi was 
filled up by 1 p. m. on the 7th. Shivlal then wanted 
to divert the water into his field but Bhagwandas 
prevented him from doing so claiming the tum to be his. 
According to Ram Karan Mirab P. W.1 the turn of 
Bhagwandas was after Surta whose turn was next to 
that of Shivlal. 
As Shivlal was prevented from taking his turn of 
water he started walking towards the village saying 
that he would go and speak to Mirab. Bhagwandas 
thereupon shouted that "the enemy was going" and 
hit Shivlal on the head with a kassi. 
Netram then hit Shivlal with lathi as a result of 
which he fell down and then both beat Shivlal, and 
1957 
Bhagwan Das 
v. 
The State of 
Rajasthans 
Kapur J. 
1957 
Bhagwan Das 
.v. 
Tk State of 
Ra}asthan 
Kapw ]. 
856 
SUPREME COURT REPORTS 
[1957] 
Mt. R:imeshwari also, it was alleged, joined in this 
beating 
with a wooden handle of a 
kassi. 
This 
occurrence was witnessed by Hazari P. W. 3 who was 
grazing his camels in the field . of Surta. He went up 
to the plac
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