LexDARSHAN SINGH @ BHASURI & ORS. versus STATE OF PUNJAB
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.. J DARSHAN SINGH @ BHASURI & ORS. v. STATE OF PUNJAB Marc~ 31, 1983 [Y.V. CHANDRACHUD C.J., AND 0. CHINNAPPA REDDY, J]. Criminal Procedure Code, 1973, Section 154-First Information Report- Non-mentioning the. name of an accused does· not entitle him to an acquittal- () Dying declaration, cunviction resting on, explained-AppreCiatlon Gf evidence- Sectio'ns 3 and 32 of the Evidence Act and interference under Article 136 of the Constitution by the Supreme Court. Appellants along with three others were tried by the Additional 'SessioQ.S Judge, Ferozepore for offences under Section 302 I.P.C. read with se~tions i2G-B and 149 on the charge that, in pursuance of a conspiracy, they caused the death of five persons and injuries to three others on the night between the 29th and 30th September, 1978 in the village of Kaila. The background of the incident leading to the. crime and furnishing its motive was that certain membC:_rs of the family of those who were murdered in the instant case were tri.ed for' thc:t mqrder in June 1977, of Buta Singh, the so~ of accused no. 1 but acquitteq. In order to prove the charges against the accused, the PrOs'.ecution examined as many as 53 witnesses while the accused exainined 16 .witnesses in their defence. Ute case of the pr-0secution rested mainly on three _categories of ev~dence: (1) the evid\:nCe of the three eye-witness.es, Mohinder Singh (PW 15), Naval Singh (PW 016) and Sant Kaur \PW) 247 ; (2) the dying declaration (Exh. PV) made by Sohan Singh ; and (3) the recovery of fire arrr\s and cartidges from the possession of Accused Nos. 3, 4, 5,6. and 7 . The J\dditional Sessions Judge convicted nine out of the ten accused for the offences of conspirary and murder, sentenced accused nos. l, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 to death and accused nos. 2, 8 ·and 9 to life imprisoninent. -Accused no. 10, Harbans Kaur, wife of accused no. 2 Darshan Singh alias Bhasnri, was acquitted. The High Court or Punjab and Haryana confirmed the death sentence impooed upon accused nos. I, 3, 5, 6 and 7, but reduced the sentence -0tacQ11Sed no. 4 to lift imprisonment. Hence the appeals by five persons who w,e sentenced to .deat~ and two who are sentenced to life in1prisonment: Accepting the appeals of accused 1 and 2 and acquiting them, and, while maintaining the convictions of the rest, but altering the sentence oNeath imposed on accused nos. 3, 5, 6 and 1 to one oflife imprisonment, the court D· A &. c D G H 606: SUPREME COURT REPORTS [1983] 2 s.c.a. HELD : 1 : 1 No ·rule of law stipulates that an accused whose name is not mentioned in the First Information Repori is entitled to an acquittal. The fact that the names of other accused are not mentioned in the First Infor- mation Report was at least a circumstance which the prosecution had to ·~plain [609 D-BJ In the instant case, the High Court, instead of considering the circum- stances in which, and the reasons for which, Mohinder Singh did not m.ention · tbenamesoftheother accused in the First Information Report, erroneously took the view that the omission in the F.I.R. was a matter of little consequence since it was made good by the fact that Sohan Singh had mentioned the names of all the accused in his dying decl~ration, further overlooking the fact that the dying declaration it•elf was open to grave exception. [609 B-F, 610A) 1 : 2 When it is said that a conviction can rest on a dyjng declaration, it is implied that it must inspire confidence so as to make it safe to act upon it. [610 BJ Here, if the vital. organs of Sohan Singh, according to Dr. Birindcr Pal (PW 2) who conducted the postmortem examination on bis body, were ''completely smashed", it is impossible to belive that he was in a fit state of mind and body to n1ake any kind of coherent or credible statement relating to the Circun1stances which ri.:sulted in his death. True, he was quite neat his creator On the morning of the 30th, dallgerously so indeed, so that one may accept that his mind was then free from Tilllngs which affiict the generality of human beings, like involving enemies in false charges. But, Sohan Singh was, too ill to entertain any thoughts, good or bad, and he could not possibly -have been in a position to mitke any kind of intelligibl'! statement so as to implicate accused 3 to 9. Hi• dying declaration cannot therefore, be relied upon. [61011-D] 2. Liquor is no lie-detector. The evidence regarding conspiracy, !Ct i
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