# IRLAPATJ SUBBAYYA v. THE PUBLIC PROSECUTOR, ANDHRA PRADESH March I 4, I 974

- **Citation:** [1974] 3 S.C.R. 602
- **Court:** Supreme Court of India
- **Decided:** 1974
- **Case number:** Criminal Appeal No. 229 of 1970
- **Bench:** M.H. Beg, Y.V. Chandrachud
- **Source:** https://unisonlegal.in/judgment/supreme-court-of-india/irlapatj-subbayya-v-the-public-prosecutor-andhra-pradesh-march-i-4-i-974-6120
- **Pages:** 5

## Headnote

Supreme Court (Enlargement of Criminal Appellate Jurisdiction) Act 1910Appea/ again.rt acquittal-Duty of the High Court while in~erfering with the acquittal.
The appellant was charged for offences punishable under sections 302, 32S and
323 read with sec. 34 of the J.P.C. along with three others. The Sessions Court acquitt·
ed the appellant. The High Court set aside the acquittal and convicted the appellant
upon the plea of the appellant that the Hi~h Court had erred in its appreciation of
evidence. The Court went through the entrre record for itself as the appellant had
.approached the Court under the Criminal Jurisdiction newJy created.
Allowing the appeal,
HEW : (I) That1 the conviction by the High Court was not based on complete
er comprehensive 21ppreciation of all features of the case, which, taken together
·cast a reasonable doubt on the prosecution version. There was CJnsiderable uncertainty .about the time and the place at which the incident took place. The evidence
of the witnesses that there was considerable bleeding from the injury of the deceased
was inconsistent with total absence of blood at the place of occurrence. The prosecution tried to prove that there were 3 blows struck on the head of the deceased,
but this was not supported by the medical evidence. [b06C; BJ
(JI) Held further that the High Court failed to attach due weight to the assessment of evidence by the trial court which had the additional advantage of seeing
the witnes.scs depose in the witness box. {606D]

## Text

602
IRLAPATJ
SUBBAYYA
v.
THE PUBLIC PROSECUTOR, ANDHRA PRADESH
March
I 4, I 974
[M.H. BEG AND Y.V. CHANDRACHUD, JJ.)
Supreme Court (Enlargement of Criminal Appellate Jurisdiction) Act 1910Appea/ again.rt acquittal-Duty of the High Court while in~erfering with the acquittal.
The appellant was charged for offences punishable under sections 302, 32S and
323 read with sec. 34 of the J.P.C. along with three others. The Sessions Court acquitt·
ed the appellant. The High Court set aside the acquittal and convicted the appellant
upon the plea of the appellant that the Hi~h Court had erred in its appreciation of
evidence. The Court went through the entrre record for itself as the appellant had
.approached the Court under the Criminal Jurisdiction newJy created.
Allowing the appeal,
HEW : (I) That1 the conviction by the High Court was not based on complete
er comprehensive 21ppreciation of all features of the case, which, taken together
·cast a reasonable doubt on the prosecution version. There was CJnsiderable uncertainty .about the time and the place at which the incident took place. The evidence
of the witnesses that there was considerable bleeding from the injury of the deceased
was inconsistent with total absence of blood at the place of occurrence. The prosecution tried to prove that there were 3 blows struck on the head of the deceased,
but this was not supported by the medical evidence. [b06C; BJ
(JI) Held further that the High Court failed to attach due weight to the assessment of evidence by the trial court which had the additional advantage of seeing
the witnes.scs depose in the witness box. {606D]
CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION : Criminal Appeal No. 229 of
1970.
From the judgment and order dated the 29th September, 1970 of
the Andbra Pradesh High Court at Hyderabad in Criminal Appeal
No. 891 of 1969.
K. T. Harindranati and G. S. Rama Rao, for the appellant.
P. Ram Reddy and P. P. Rao, for the respondent.
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The Judgement of the Court was delivered by
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BEG J.-The appellant was charged, with his three brothers-in-Jaw,
Bayyarapu Butchiah, Bayyarapu Chandriah, and Bayya1apu Kotayya
for offences punisbhable under Section 302, 325, and 323 Indian Penal
Code each read with Section 34 Indian Penal Code, for having murdered
Irlapati Ramayya aRd causing grievous hurt to Ankayya, P.W. 2, and
simple injury to China Veerayya, P.W. I, at about 4.30 p.m., on 15-6-69,
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in front of house of Vipparla Peda Veerayya in Village Vipparla. District Guntur in the State of Andhra Pradesh. They were .tried and
acquitted by the learned Sessions' Judge of Guntur who attached
considerable importance to the supposed delay in lodging the First
Information Report of the alleged occurrence af 10.30 p.m. on 15-6-69
at Police Station, Sattonapalli, 13 miles away from the scene of the
incident. The prosecution had a sufficiently good explanation for the
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supposed delay inasmuch as the wife and other relations of the deceased
were busy trying to gt! adequate medical attention for the deceased
before thinking of making the F.J.R. The High Court had, on an
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IRLAPATI v. PUBLIC PROSECUTOR (Beg,/.)
(;03
appeal to it, C·)nsidered this and other questions involved in the case
and convicted and sentenced the appellant under Section 302 to life
imprisonment and awarded other appropriate sentences under Sections
325 and 323 I.P.C. to him. The High Court had convicted the three
other co-accused under Sections 323 and 324 I.P.C. only and had
sentenced them to a fine of Rs. 150/- only, and, in default of payment
Df fine, to three months rigorous
imprisonment. Consequently,
the appellant, had his right to appeal to this Court against the reversal
of the order of his acquittal. The co-accused, Mt being in that advantageous position, could not obtain any special leave to appeal.
As this is an appeal, in exercise of a newly created right of appeal
to this Coμrt, we have examined the evidence on record. The points
raised on behalfof the appellant, on this evidence, are mentioned below.
Firstly, it is pointed out that P.W.I, P.W. 2, P.W. 3, and P.W. 4,
as well as P.W. 10, and P.W. 11, are relations of the deceased; highly
interested in securing the convictions of the appellant on account of
partisanship. It was urged that P.W. 5 and P.W. 6," were wrongly
treated as alleged "independent witnesses" by the High Court. It
\Vas suggested to the prosecution witnesses, in the course of their cross.-
examination, that the real occurrence took place elsewhere and consisted of long drawn out stone pelting by two sides during the day
in the course of which both sides were injured. In support of this
version, reliance was placed upon several tell-tale, or, at least, highly
suspicious circumstances which were not adequately explained by the
proseoution. Secondly, no blood was found anywhere near the Neem
tree in front of the house of P.W. 3, Peda Verrayya, where the occurrence is said to have taken place. Thirdly, it was establihsed, from the
statement of the investigating officer, that the trunk of the Neem tree
under which the alleged occurrence took place was about 5 to 6 ft.
high so that no lathis could be lifted and brought down to beat the
injured without obstruction by brarrches as was admitted by Lakshmayya. P.W. 4, and China Veerayya, P.W. I. Fourthly, the site plan
showed quite a number of stones lying at some d,istance from the
scene of occurrence. Fifthly, a number of independent witnesses,
apart from the ones examined, (who are all characterised by the appellant's Counsel as "partisan witnesses",) were said to be available but
not examined. Although this was admitted as a fact in the Committing Magistrate's Court by P.W. I, a new version was, it was submitted,
given at the trial. Sixthly, there were injuries upon the appellant's
body which had not been explained by the prosecution version
although a belated attempt had been made by Lakshmayya, P.W. 4,
at the trial to explain these injuries by alleging that the four injuries,
all on the head of the appellant, which, according to the Doctor,
could be caused by stone throwing also, were caused by P. W. 4.
This new version was, it was urged, incredible in view of the prosecation case of th< aggressiveness of the accused and youthfulness
of P. W. 4, aged 22, who admitted that he had run away as he was
afraid of being beaten and was chased. It was pointed out that
this attempt to explain the injuries on the head of the- appellant was
neith~r consistent with the earliest prosecution version nor \\iith
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SUPREME COURT REPORTS
l 19741 3 s.c.a.
statements of other prosecution witnesses where no such incident is
mentioned. It was, therefore, submitted that this belated attempt
was not an explanation at all but only an indication of falsehood and
fabrication in the case.
Seventhly,
we were taken through the
statements
of prosecution witnesses, P. W. I, P.W. 2, P. W. 3,
P. W. 4, P.W. 5, P.W. 6, as to the time of the occurrence which was
variously stated by them to have taken place at different times between
noon and just before sunset.
This was certainly a most unusual
variation which rould not be explained by mere inability of villagers
to give the exact time,
The villagers had described the time by
reference to "baras" before sunset and the colour of the sun
which was described
as red by
one
witness so that it was
nearing
sunset.
according
to
him, at
the time of the
occurrence. This feature of the evidence was more consistent
with some long drawn out occurrence such as stone throwing or
with the fact that all the alleged witnesses could not be there. In
any case, they could not be there at the same time. Their versions,
therefore, appear highly suspicious. Eigbthly,
there were variations in the statements of witnesses about the time and place at
which China Veerayya, P.W. I and Ankayya, P. W. 2, were said
to have been beaten. Sayamma, P. W. IO, for example had stated
that Ankayya, P. W. 2 was beaten at a distance of IO to IS yds.
from the house of Peda Veerayya, P.W. 3 at the junction of North
South streets and East West street. Sub-Inspector Perayya, P.W". 22
stated that this junction was about 60 to 70 yds. from the house of
Peda Veerayya. Venkamma, P.W. 12 bad stated that the place where
Ankayya, P.W. 2 fell was at a distance of only I or 2 yds. from the
house. of Peda Veerayya, P.W. 3. According
to the appellant's
Counsel, the cumulative effect of the features mentioned above
and of even minor discrepancies which would, in a different context,
be quite unimportant, was to indicate that the witnesses had not
really seen or described the occurrerce as it took pkce but were
putting forward a substantially incorrect version.
In reply, some attempt has been made to explain the absence of
blood from the scene of occurrence by pointing out that China
Veerayya, P.W. I had stated that the deceased had a head gear. If
that was so, the extent of the injury on the head was really difficult
to reconcile with the post mortem report which described the injuries
of Ramayya, deceased as follows;
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"I. Lacerated injury scalp 8 cm x I cm. placed over internal parietal area in anterior posterior direction. Cephalo
hematoma present extending over left
parietal,
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occipital, right parietal and temporal areas.
2. Contusion of size 8 cm x 5 cm. over outer and upper
part of left fore arm.
3. Three small superficial abrasions anterially below right
knee joint".
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The Doctor had also stated :
"On dissection of injury No. I showed extensive aphalo
hematoma involving left parietal, occipatal and right parietal
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IRLAPATI v. PUBLIC PROSECUTOR (Beg,].)
605
and temporal areaa comminuted depressed fracture of vault of
scalp involving frontal bone 5 cm. in anterior posterior direction. Part of the left perietal bone detached and broken into
three pieces and lying loose over brain fissured fracture extending upto left temporal bone. Right' parietal bone fractured
transversely uptQ thr.ee centimetres, occipital bone fractured
and. fissure fracture placed obliquely towards right for 3 ems.
Bram membrances found contused shOwed no lacerations".
It was urged that a "hematoma" does not produce much bleeding.
We do not think that the injuries alleged have been inflicted on the
head with sticks are of such a nature that they would not produce
considerable bleeding. Jn fact, the Doctor said that the scalp was
covered with blood. Therefore, the attempt
to
explain
the
mysterious absence of any blood from the alleged place of occurrence
is rather feeble.
We also find that the·account given by the prosecution witness
does not fit in with the medical evidence inasmuch as not only was the
appellant said to have beaten the deceased with a stick on his head
but another accused was said to have poked him on the chest with
his stick fir~t and then beaten him on his left hand, still another accused
was alleged to hB;'e given a blow with a stick on the forehead of the
deceased, and the fourth accused was said to have struck the deceased
on the left side of the head just above the ear. The three injuries
indicated above show that no blow was
struck
on
the
forehead
of the
deceased at all. The
superficial abrasions
below the knee could be very well due to the falling. Thus, there
were really only two injuries on the head. It may be that the first
injury was due to more than one blow on the head. The Doctor was,
however, not questioned on this aspect. There were, in any case,
certainly not four injuries on the body of the deceased.
The Doctor who performed the post mortem had said that the
injury which caused the death could be due to striking the deceased's
head with a blunt object like a stick but that "it is also possible that
injury No. I could be caused by "a stone of 3" or even more". The
Doctor admitted that injury on the knee could be ca11sed by a fall
on a rough surface. He found the scalp was so profusely covered
with blood· that he could not completely examine the injury.
Thus bleeding appears to have been con&iderable. Hence, absence
of blood from the alleged place of occurrence appears' to us to carry
a significance which the High Court ignored.
We may also mention that the nature of the incideDt set up by
the prosecution itself shows that there was a
dispute over the
possession and construction of a house for the repairs of which
about 400 stones had been collected. On an occasion prior to the
actual occurrence, the appellant was said fo have been obstructed from
carrying stones. It was alleged that he had, for this reason, ~~1lten
Sayamma and her mother who were said to have obstructed him.
A constable was said to have come to the village at about noon on
606
SUPREME COURT REPORTS
[ 1974] 3 S.C.R.
the day of occurrence to investigate, ~ild, thereafter, the incident is
alleged to have taken place. The incident alleged by the prosecution certainly did not occur while the constable was ·still there.
There is considerable' uncertainty about the time as well as the
place at which the incident took place. Furthermore, the injuries
on the appellant had not been explained. Apart from the features
mentioned already, we find that the village Munsif, who was available
for a complaint about the incident was not informed.
This suggests
that the party of the prosecution witnesses had something, like
stone throwing by them, to hide. The deceased was also not taken
to the nearest dispensary to get his wounds dressed.
We are, therefore, not satisfied that the High Court Jhad rightly
interfered with the order of acquittal passed by the 1rial Court
The view of the High Court is not based on a complete
or comprehensive appreciation of all
the
features
of the
case which taken together, cast a reasonable doubt
on
the
prosecution version. It is well established that, in
an appeal
against acquittal, the appellate Court ought to attach due weight
to the assessment of evidence by the Trial Court which has had the
additional advantage of seeing the witnesses depose in the witness
box.
We, therefore, allow this appeal and set aside the"conviction and
sentence of the appellant who shall be set free forthwith unless
wanted in some other connection .
S: B. W.
Appeal
allowed.
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