Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985  - Section 21 , Section 50

Acquittal - Appeal - Non-compliance of the mandatory provision - Police party apprehended the appellant and on search, three polythene packets recovered from left side pocket of his shirt containing powder of light brown colour - Sample gave positive test for diacetylmorphine (heroin) - Concerned officer had prior information of the raid; thus, he was expected to be prepared for carrying out his duties of investigation in accordance with the provisions of Section 50 of the Act - Contraband article should be recovered in accordance with the provisions of Section 50 of the Act - Recovery itself shall stand vitiated in law - Accused was not made aware of his right, that he could be searched in the presence of Gazetted Officer or a Magistrate, therefore, non-compliance of the provisions of Section 50 of the Act caused prejudice to the accused, and, amounted to the denial of a fair trial - Supreme Court - Contraband seized as a result of search made in contravention to Section 50 of the Act, cannot be used to fasten the liability of unlawful possession of contraband on the person from whom the contraband had allegedly been seized in an illegal manner - Acquittal order confirmed - Appeal dismissed.

Found In:  Judgement

Land Acquisition  - Land acquisition

Change of allotted area - Appellant was allotted 1.61 hectares of land and possession of land was handed over - Respondent No.5 filed a suit for a declaration in relation to the land in question - Collector being satisfied about the mistake committed by the Circle Inspector ordered that the area allotted to the appellant as per the original order needed a change - Writ petition - High Court - Appellant could not continue to claim possession of the land which was not the subject matter of the acquisition itself - Court granted relief to the appellant in relation to an alternative site - Appeal - The land which was not subject matter of the acquisition could not be treated as the land having been offered to the appellant validly and in accordance with law - Further held - There was a mistake committed by the Revenue Authorities which was subsequently corrected, no advantage can be claimed by the petitioner in that regard, particularly when the mistake was in relation to a root controversy - Appeal dismissed - No costs.

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Indian Penal Code,1860  - Section 302 , Section 34

Murder with common intention - conviction and sentence - Fact of homicidal death place of occurrence and time of his death not in dispute - Courts below found that evidence of both the eye-witnesses PW-1 and PW-2 inspired confidence and was worth acceptance as both of them had given full version of the incident - Held - Witnesses had no reason to falsely implicate the appellants and the co-accused and spare the real assailants - No fault found with the evidence recorded by the courts below accepting the evidence of closely related witnesses - Conviction orders upheld - Appeal dismissed.

Found In:  Judgement

The Contempt of Courts Act, 1971  - Section 19

Appeal - Case of impersonification - Presiding Officer of Court raised certain issues - Appellant misbehaved with officer in court and used abusive language - High Court - Appellant guilty of committing contempt and sentenced him to undergo 3 months simple imprisonment with a fine of Rs.2,000/- - Appeal - Whether the facts and circumstances warrant acceptance of apology tendered - Conduct of the appellant complete violation and in contravention of the "standard of professional conduct and etiquette" - Even the appellant has not chosen to defend himself on merit before the High Court, rather he merely tendered apology thrice - Apology tendered by the appellant gives an impression that the same was in the alternative and not a complete surrender before the law, therefore, viewed that the apology tendered by the appellant had neither been sincere nor bona fide and thus, not worth acceptance - Appeal dismissed.

Found In:  Judgement

Indian Penal Code,1860  - Section 395 , Section 396 , Section 397

Dacoity with murder - Conviction and sentence - Concurrent findings of facts on record - Involvement and participation of all the six accused-appellants - Properly identified in the Test Identification Parades as well as in the Court by the witnesses - Looted property, particularly, ornaments, jewellery, silver glasses recovered and identified correctly - Doctor conducted autopsy corroborated injuries as well as the manner and the weapon with which such injuries were caused - Supreme Court - No interference with the concurrent findings of fact, recorded by the courts below - Appeal dismissed.

Found In:  Judgement

Indian Penal Code,1860  - Section 395 , Section 396 , Section 397

Dacoity with murder - Acquittal - Appeal against - Recovery looted property on the basis of the disclosure statements respondents - Whether adverse inference could be drawn against the accused - No - No test identification parade was held at all concerning the two acquitted respondents/accused - None of the eye witnesses, identified either of the said respondents in the court - Recovery on the disclosure statements of either of the respondents/accused persons was not in close proximity of time from the date of incident - Recovery is either of cash, small things or vehicles which can be passed from one person to another without any difficulty - Supreme Court - No adverse inference can be drawn - Recoveries made on the disclosure statements of the respondents to connect them with the commission of the crime - Acquittal orders confirmed - Appeal dismissed.

Found In:  Judgement

The Contempt of Courts Act, 1971  - Section 12 , Section 15 , Section 2

Criminal contempt - High Court initiated suo motu contempt proceedings against the contemnors/advocates for hurling abuses and derogatory remarks against the Jr. Div.-cum-Judicial Magistrate, I Class - High Court found all the contemnors guilty of criminal contempt and imposed simple imprisonment of six months/three months with a fine of Rs.1,000-2,000/- each - Appeals - Appellants offered unconditional apology by filing affidavits - Supreme Court accepted the unconditional apology as an exception to the general rule, tendered in the form of affidavits in terms of proviso to Section 12(1) of the Act - Appellants discharged.

Found In:  Judgement

Indian Penal Code,1860  - Section 120-B , Section 409 , Section 420 , Section 467 , Section 468 , Section 471 , Section 477-A

FIR under - Against Chairman, Directors and Auditors of M/s. Satyam Computer Services Limited - Corporate scam - Fudging of company accounts and manipulation of records - Investigation entrusted to CBI - High Court enlarged A4 and A10 on bail - Imposing certain conditions -Appeals - Facts and circumstances of magnitude of scam - Bail granted in favour of - Main accused - Cancelled - A4 and A10 being external and internal auditors - Their role being paramount - High Court not justified - Granting bail - Impugned order granting bail A-4 and A-10 set aside - appeals allowed.

Found In:  Judgement

Indian Penal Code,1860  - Section 302

Murder - Conviction - Circumstantial evidence - Challenged - Appellants were convicted for the offence punishable u/s. 302 of IPC - Conviction was affirmed by HC - Appeal - Whether courts below erred in convicting the appellants? - Held, courts below have examined the entire evidence on record and reached the conclusion that chain of circumstances stood completed and all the circumstances pointed towards the guilt of the accused - Such findings stand fully substantiated by the depositions of the witnesses in the court - There was nothing on record to indicate that witnesses had any motive to falsely implicate the accused or that there was any motive for attributing an untruthful statement to the appellants - Conviction upheld - Appeal dismissed.

Found In:  Judgement

The Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973  - Section 177 , Section 178 , Section 179 , Indian Penal Code,1860  - Section 489-A , Section 406 , Section 34 , The Dowry Prohibition Act,1961  - Section 3 , Section 4

- Jurisdiction - Appellant (Wife) got married to respondent no. 2 at Gaya and moved to her matrimonial home at Ranchi - Immediately after the marriage, respondents (appellant's husband and his relatives) started harassing and torturing appellant for bringing less dowry - Appellant lodged FIR u/ss. 498A and 406 r/w. s. 34 of IPC and ss. 3 and 4 of 1961 Act at Gaya - The Chief Judicial Magistrate took cognizance against respondents - On appeal, HC held that the proceedings at Gaya were not maintainable for lack of jurisdiction and quashed the entire proceedings at Gaya with liberty to the appellant to file the same in appropriate Court - Hence, the instant appeal - Whether criminal proceedings initiated by the appellant at Gaya against her husband and his relatives were maintainable or not for lack of jurisdiction? - Held, in view of ss. 178 and 179 of the Code, the impugned offence was a continuing one and the episode at Gaya was only a consequence of continuing offence of harassment of ill - Treatment meted out to the appellant - Hence, the Magistrate at Gaya had jurisdiction to proceed with the criminal case instituted therein - Impugned order of the HC holding that the proceedings at Gaya were not maintainable due to lack of jurisdiction cannot be sustained, hence, set aside - Appeals allowed.

Found In:  Judgement