S.P.S. RATHORE versus C.B.I. & ANR.

Citation: [2016] 5 S.C.R. 335 · Decided: 23-09-2016 · Supreme Court of India · Bench: V. GOPALA GOWDA · Disposal: Disposed off

Cited by 2 judgment(s) · see the full citation network in Lexace

Judgment (excerpt)

(2016] 5 S.C.R. 335 
S.P.S. RATHORE 
v. 
C.B.I. & ANR. 
(Criminal Appeal No. 2126 of2010) 
SEPTEMBER 23, 2016 
(V. GOPALA GOWDA AND R.K. AGRAWAL, JJ.] 
Penal Code, 1860: 
s.354 - Essential ingredients - Discussed - In the instant case, 
appellant-accused, a very senior police officer of ihe State molested 
minor girl - PW-13 witnessed that the victim was in the grip of 
appellant-accused who was holding one hand of victim in his hand 
and his other hand was around her waist and he was pulling her 
towards his chest so as to embrace her while the victim was trying 
to push him back with her free hand-PW-13 withstood her testfmony 
from beginning till the end and her deposition was found reliable 
and corroborative with other prosecution wit11esses - Both the courts 
below rightly convicted the appellant-accused uls.354 of the !PC -
Crime against wome11 - Outraging modesty of a woman. 
s.354 - Delay i11 presenting complaint of molestation - field: 
Jn the instant case, appellant-accused, was a very senior,police 
officer of the State - Victim was unmarried minor girl - In the normal 
course of hu111an conduct, this unmarried minor girl, would not like 
to give publicity to the traumatic experience she had u11dergone 
and felt terribly embarrassed in relation to the incident to 11arrate it 
to her parents and others overpowered by a feeling of shame and 
her natural incli11ation would be to avoid talking about it to anyone, 
lest the family name and honour is brought into controversy - Delay 
of 6 days ill presenting the complaint duly explained a11d, therefore, 
condonable. 
Criminal lmv: 
A 
B 
c 
D 
E 
F 
Knowledge that the act amounts to committing an offence -
. G 
Held: If intention or knowledge is one of the ingredients of any 
offence, it has got to be proved like other ingredients for convicting 
a person - But, it is also equally true that those ingredients being 
state of 111i11d may 11ot be proved by direct evidence and may have to 
be inferred from the attending circumstances of a given case. 
H 
335 
336 
A 
B 
c 
D 
E 
F 
G 
H 
SUPREME COURT REPORTS 
[2016] 5 S.C.R. 
Evidence: 
Adverse inference against the prosecution - Held: Can be 
drawn only if it withholds certain evidence and not merely on account 
of its failure to obtain certain evidence. 
Handwriting expert -
Evidentiary value of -
Held: 
Uncorroborated evidence of a hand writing expert is an extremely 
weak type of evidence and the same should not be relied upon either 
for the conviction or for acquittal - The courts, should, therefore, 
be wary to give too much weight tq the evidence of handwriting 
expert - It can rarely, if ever, take the place of substantive evidence 
- Before acting on such evidence, it is usual to see if it is corroborated 
either by clear, direct evidence or by circumstantial evidence. 
Sole eye witness - Evidentiary value of - Held: No particular 
number of witnesses is required for proving a certain fact - It is the 
quality and not the quantity of the witnesses that matters - Evidence 
is weighed and not counted - Evidence of even a single eye witness, 
truthful, consistent and inspiring confidence is sufficient for 
maintaining conviction - It is not necessary that all those persons 
who were present at the spot must be examined by the prosecution 
in order to prove the guilt of the accused. 
Disposing of the appeal, the Court 
HELD: 1. In order to constitute the offence under Section 
354 of the IPC, mere knowledge that the modesty of a woman is 
likely to be outraged is sufficient without any deliberate intention 
of having such outrage alone for its object. There is no abstract 
conception of modesty that can apply to all cases. The essential 
ingredients of the offence under Section 354 IPC are as under: 
(i) that the person assaulted must be a woman; (ii) that the 
accused must have used criminal force on her; and (iii) that the 
criminal force must have been used on the woman intending 
thereby to outrage her modesty. If intention or knowledge is one 
of the ingredients of any offence, it bas got to be proved like 
other ingredients for convicting a person. But, it is also equally 
true that those ingredients being state of mind may not be proved 
by direct evidence and may have to be inferred from the attending 
circumstances of a given case. The sequence of events in the 
instant case indicates that the appellant-accused had the requisite 
culpable intention. [Paras 22, 24] (354-F-H; 355-D] 
S.P.S. RATHORE v.

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