# MOHANDAS LALWANI v. TiiE STATE OF MADHYA PRADESH September ll, J973

- **Citation:** [1974] 1 S.C.R. 636
- **Court:** Supreme Court of India
- **Decided:** 1974
- **Case number:** Criminal Appeal No. 45 of 1970
- **Bench:** H. R. Khanna, A. ALAGmISWAMI
- **Source:** https://unisonlegal.in/judgment/supreme-court-of-india/mohandas-lalwani-v-tiie-state-of-madhya-pradesh-september-ll-j973-6014
- **Pages:** 9

## Headnote

Indian Penal Code, s. 165-Appel/afll attempted to bribe the Chiei Engi·
neer to aecure a contract-Trial Court acquitted but High Court convicted and
sent,nced the appellant- Whether High C?urt has power of review the entire
t•vidtnce under s. 417, Cr. P.C.
The accused-appeliant was acquitted by the Special Judge, Bhopal, but con·
victed by the High Court under s. 165·A I.P.C., and sentenced to one year's
rigorous in1pri~onment. The pro~ecution case is that on 1\pril 9,
1966,
the
Chief Engineer (Construction) of ff.eavy Electricals Ltd. \Vas present in hi!
office. The a12pellant-accused went there for an interview with two others. It is
allef<d that the accused-appellant offered a bribe cf Rs. 3 OfJO/· to tho Chief
Engineer and requested him to give the contract for which tenders were subn1itteJ earlier by 4 contractors. On being refused. the appe Hant put back the
currency notes in his pocket.
P.W. 5. the Personal Assistant of the Chief Engineer. is alleged to have taken out the envelOpe containing the curren~y no.es
from the trouser-pocJet of the accused and thereafter, the Chief Engineer made
a report to the Police and the accused and the report were sent ~o the Police
Station. The First Information Report was prepared in the PoJice Station on
lhe basis of the report (P-1) and a case was registered against the o.ccused .
.. \ complaint about the occurrence was thereafter filed in the Court _of the
Special Judge, Bhopal, by the Police. At the trial, the Chi,f Engineer, (P.W. I)
gave evidence in support of the prosecution and witnesses were examined by
both sides.
The trial Court did not believe wholly the prosecution casz and
gave the accused the benefit of doubt.
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On appeal, the High Court considered the evidence on record, and convicted
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the accused.
In appeal before this Court, the appellant had assailed the judgment of the
1-ligh Court and had contended that there was no sufficient ground for the High.
Court to reverse the judgment of acquittal of the Trial Court. If two views,
according to the counsel were possible in the matter, the view which was
favourable to the accused, as had been taken by the Trial Court, should be
adopted.
F
Dismissing the appeal,
HELD : (I) There is no cogent ground as to why the evidence of P.W. l
~houJd not be accepted. The witness had no animus against the :"J.ccused. 1 The
witness even did not know the accused till the day of occurrence. There is no
particular reason as to why P. W. I shoJud falsely involve the accused in this
case.
(ii) The vievv taken by the Trial Court in rejecting !he e'fidence of P.W. l
was clear1y unreasonable and the High Court had the cogent grounds to interfere
with the judgment of ac<JUittal passed bv the Trial Court. Further, the High
Coun in reversing the order of acquittal considered the matters on record, in·
eluding the reasons given by the Trial Court, as well as those aspects which
could riossibly be . claimed by the accused to be favourable to him.
[643 BJ
Tvmu Ambu Vish v. State of Maluzraslzlra, A.I.R. 1971 S.C. 2256, referred
to and distinguished.
(iii) It is well settled that the High Court in appeal, under s. 417 of Cr.
P .C., bas full power to review at large the evid~nce on which the order of
acquittal was founded and reach the conclusion that upon the evidenCe
the
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MOHANDAS v. M.P. STATE (Khanna, /.)
637
order of acquittal. should be reverseo_.
No limitation should be pl""" upon
fhat power unless 1t be found expressly stated in the Code~ but in exercising the
power. conferred by the ~ode, and be~ore reaching its conclusion upon fact,
the H;gh C?urt sho.uld give prol":r weight and considerations to the followin1
matters :-(1) tho views of the T;ial Judge as to tho credibility of the witnesses
(ii) the presumption of innocence Jn favour of the accused (iii) the right of
.the accuse~ to !he benefi! of any doubt. and (iv) the slowness of an appellate
court 1n d1sturb1ng a finding of fact arnved at by a judge who had the advanta

## Text

636
MOHANDAS LALWANI
v.
TiiE STATE OF MADHYA PRADESH
September ll, J973
[H. R. KHANNA AND A. ALAGmISWAMI, JJ.)
Indian Penal Code, s. 165-Appel/afll attempted to bribe the Chiei Engi·
neer to aecure a contract-Trial Court acquitted but High Court convicted and
sent,nced the appellant- Whether High C?urt has power of review the entire
t•vidtnce under s. 417, Cr. P.C.
The accused-appeliant was acquitted by the Special Judge, Bhopal, but con·
victed by the High Court under s. 165·A I.P.C., and sentenced to one year's
rigorous in1pri~onment. The pro~ecution case is that on 1\pril 9,
1966,
the
Chief Engineer (Construction) of ff.eavy Electricals Ltd. \Vas present in hi!
office. The a12pellant-accused went there for an interview with two others. It is
allef<d that the accused-appellant offered a bribe cf Rs. 3 OfJO/· to tho Chief
Engineer and requested him to give the contract for which tenders were subn1itteJ earlier by 4 contractors. On being refused. the appe Hant put back the
currency notes in his pocket.
P.W. 5. the Personal Assistant of the Chief Engineer. is alleged to have taken out the envelOpe containing the curren~y no.es
from the trouser-pocJet of the accused and thereafter, the Chief Engineer made
a report to the Police and the accused and the report were sent ~o the Police
Station. The First Information Report was prepared in the PoJice Station on
lhe basis of the report (P-1) and a case was registered against the o.ccused .
.. \ complaint about the occurrence was thereafter filed in the Court _of the
Special Judge, Bhopal, by the Police. At the trial, the Chi,f Engineer, (P.W. I)
gave evidence in support of the prosecution and witnesses were examined by
both sides.
The trial Court did not believe wholly the prosecution casz and
gave the accused the benefit of doubt.
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I)
On appeal, the High Court considered the evidence on record, and convicted
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the accused.
In appeal before this Court, the appellant had assailed the judgment of the
1-ligh Court and had contended that there was no sufficient ground for the High.
Court to reverse the judgment of acquittal of the Trial Court. If two views,
according to the counsel were possible in the matter, the view which was
favourable to the accused, as had been taken by the Trial Court, should be
adopted.
F
Dismissing the appeal,
HELD : (I) There is no cogent ground as to why the evidence of P.W. l
~houJd not be accepted. The witness had no animus against the :"J.ccused. 1 The
witness even did not know the accused till the day of occurrence. There is no
particular reason as to why P. W. I shoJud falsely involve the accused in this
case.
(ii) The vievv taken by the Trial Court in rejecting !he e'fidence of P.W. l
was clear1y unreasonable and the High Court had the cogent grounds to interfere
with the judgment of ac<JUittal passed bv the Trial Court. Further, the High
Coun in reversing the order of acquittal considered the matters on record, in·
eluding the reasons given by the Trial Court, as well as those aspects which
could riossibly be . claimed by the accused to be favourable to him.
[643 BJ
Tvmu Ambu Vish v. State of Maluzraslzlra, A.I.R. 1971 S.C. 2256, referred
to and distinguished.
(iii) It is well settled that the High Court in appeal, under s. 417 of Cr.
P .C., bas full power to review at large the evid~nce on which the order of
acquittal was founded and reach the conclusion that upon the evidenCe
the
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MOHANDAS v. M.P. STATE (Khanna, /.)
637
order of acquittal. should be reverseo_.
No limitation should be pl""" upon
fhat power unless 1t be found expressly stated in the Code~ but in exercising the
power. conferred by the ~ode, and be~ore reaching its conclusion upon fact,
the H;gh C?urt sho.uld give prol":r weight and considerations to the followin1
matters :-(1) tho views of the T;ial Judge as to tho credibility of the witnesses
(ii) the presumption of innocence Jn favour of the accused (iii) the right of
.the accuse~ to !he benefi! of any doubt. and (iv) the slowness of an appellate
court 1n d1sturb1ng a finding of fact arnved at by a judge who had the advantage of seeing the witnesses.
Therefore, from the matters on record and after
consiJering the judgment of the trial court and the High Cou.rt, we are firmly
of the opinion that the trial ·Is not vitiated by any such fnfi.rmity as may can·
for interference by lhis Court.
[643EJ
CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION : Criminal Appeal No. 45
of 1970.
Appeal by special leave from the judgment and Order dated
February 4, 1970 of the High Court of Madhya Pradesh (Jabalpur
Ben-:h) in Criminal Appeal No. 24 of 1967.
Hardayal Hardy, M. S. N. Nambudri and B. R. G K. A.char, for
the appellant.
Ram Panjwani and H. S. P{fihar, for the respondent.
The Judgment of the Court was delivered by
KHANNA, J. This is an appeal by special leave by Mohandas
Lalwani against the judgment of
Madhya
Pradesh High
Court
whereby the High Court reversed the judgment of acquittal of tht
Special Judge Bhopal and convicted the accused
appellant
under
section 165A Indian Penal Code and sentenced
him
to
undergo
rigorous imprisonment for a period of one year.
The Executive Engineer, Heavy
ElectricaIS
Ltd.
(hereinafter
referred to as HEL), Bhopal invited tenders
for
construction of
four BCC overhead tanks. elach of one lakh gallons capacity, by a
tender notice published on December 23, 1965.
Four contractors,
including the accused appellant. submitted their
tenders.
Those
·tenders were opened on February l, 1966.
It was found that the
tender of the appellant, \Vh.o had stipula(ed that he would use 18 tons
of steel, was of the lowest amount. The other three contractors had
stipulated that they would use 24 tons of steel.
The case of the prosecution is that on April 9, 1966 PW 1 Shiv·
narain W adhwa, Chief Engineer Construction of HEL was present
in his office.
PW 5 Niranjanlal Shrivastava, Personal Assistant to
the Chief Engineer, was also present there. A partition divides the
office of the Chief Engineer from the place where Shrivastava used
to sit. At about 11.45 a.m. on that day, the appellant accompanied
by two others, came to PW Shrivastava.
The appellant· gave visiting card P4 to Shrivastava and said that he wanted to see the Chief
Engineer.
Shrivastava sent that card through a peon
to
Chief
Engineer W adhwa
A short time thereafter on being called
by
W adhwa, the accused appellant accompanied by his two companions
went inside the office of W adhwa.
On arrival there, the accused
talked about his tender and stated that as his tender was the lowest,
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the .same should .. be accepted. The acc\Jsed also handed . over copy
P~ of letter dated April 8, 1966 which had been addressed by him 111
the. Executive Engineer in connection with the above tender.
Wadhwa then toM the accused that according to the
information
received by him, the accused had stipulated the use of only 18 tons
of .steel as against 24 tons stipulated by others. The accused, however, persisted in saying that. his tender was the
lowest. . Wadhwa
tpen told the accused that whatever he h.ad to say in the matter, he
should ·tell the Executive Engineer and that he might
also hand
over a copy of his letter to
the . Assistant Chief Engineer.
The
two companions of the accused then left the office of
Wadhwa,
while the accus~<i remained sitting there.
W ad4wa then told 1\1.e
ilccused also to ~o, but the accused instead of going took out from
the left pocket u · his trousers an envelope and· presented it to
Wadhwa.
Wadhwa could see that the envelope contained 100-rupee
currency notes. Wadhwa reprimanded the accused for doing something wrong and at the same time he (Wadhwa) pressed the buzzer
for his Personal Assistant. Shrivastava PW tl\en came inside
the
office of Wadhwa. In the meantime, the accused had put back the
envelope containing currency notes in the pocket of his trousers. On
the arrival of Shrivastava, Wadhwa told him that the accused
had
igiven him bribe·
Wadhwa also asked Shrivastava to take out the
envelope from the pocket of the trousers of the accused. Shrivastava
then took out the envelope containing currency notes from
the
. trousers pocket of the accused. There were thirty 100-rupee currency
notes in that envelope. Wadhwa then rung up R.C. Gupta (PW 3}
who is the Secretary and Vigilance Officer of HEL as well as Chandr.1
Shekhar Tiwari (PW 4), who is the Chief Security Officer of HEL.
The offices of Gupta and Tiwari are also in the
Administrative
Building of HEL, in which building is situated the office of Wadhwa
PW.
The case of the prosecution further is that on the · arrival
of
Gupta and Tiwari PWs, Wadhwa narrated the facts about the offer
of Rs. 3,000 by the accused
to him
as
mentioned above.
The
accused then expressed his apologies and stated that he was sorry and
ashamed for what he had done.
The accused also requested that he
might be forgiven and that otherwise he would lose his career. as a
Cotttractor.
When the accused offered his apologies, Wadhwa
remarked that if the accused gave anything in writing, he would consider
t}te matter. The accused thereupon wrote something on a piece of
pj!per.
As the writing was not found to be satisfactory. the same was
not accepted by Wadhwa and the paper remained with the accused.
Wadhwa then asked Shrivastava to take Lalwani
to his
room.
Wadhwa thereafter asked for the advice of. Gupta and Tiwari.
It
-was then decided that the matter should be reported to the police.
Wadhwa thereupon called Shrivastava and dictated to him report Pl.
ht the report the number of currency notes were also noted by Shrivastava.
The report was then signed by Wadhwa.
The accused and
.the. report were thereafter sent to police station Govindpura. Formal
firs~ information report pg was prepared at the police sfation on tli;e
basis of report Pl and a case was registered against the accused ·at
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MOHANDAS V, M;P. STATE {K'hanna, /.)
2.15 p.m. Complaint about the occurrence. w;is thereafter filed
in
the court of the Special Judge Bhopal by Town Inspector Gurbir
Singh on May 20, 1966.
At the trial, Wadhwa (PW 1) gave evidence in support of the
prosecution case as given above.
Gupia (PW 3) and Tiwari (PW
4) deposed about the extra judicial confession of the accused in the
office of Wadhwa PW when they were called there by Wadhwa PW
on telephone.
The prosecution further examined Shrivastava (PW
5), according to whom, he was called by Wadhwa and was told that
the accused had offered him bribe. The witness took out an envelope containing currency notes of the value of Rs. 3,000 from the .
pocket of the accused under the directions of W adhwa· The witness .
further deposed regarding the. extra judicial confession made by the
accused after the. arrival of Gupta and Tiwari PWs.
The accused, in his statement under section 342 of the Code of
Criminal Procedure, admitted. having met Wadhwa PW in his office·
on April 9, 1966 and about his having handed over to W adhwa copy
of letter P3. The accused also admitted that the Personal Assistant
cif Wadhwa had taken out 30 currency notes of Rs. 100 each. from
his pocket under the directions of Wadhwa.
The fact that Gupta and
Tiwari were called on telephone by W adhwa was further admitted by
the a'.:Cused.
The other prosecution allegations were denied by the
accused.
He denied having offered any amount to Wadhwa or about
his having made any confession after the arrival of Gupta and Tiwari
PWs. The accused further gave the following version of the
occurrence :
"On 1-4-66 I had gone to the office of the Executive
Engine1er Shri Karajgi. He was not there. I learnt from
the office that my tender· and the tenders of two or three
persons more sent to the Assistant
Chief Engineer, and
there was remark on llliY tender that the testimonials were
not attach'M · whereas I had sent the same on the 2lst.
Therefore. I went to the Chief Engineer on the same day and
told hi~1 th~t my tender was the lowest and they say, that.
the testtmomals have not been sent.
On being asked by
him I replied, 'can bring the testimonials'.
Then I went to
Delhi and on 9-4-66 I came with the testimonials and
the consultant Engineer and I .had brought the amount of
secunty also.
Then I went to the office of the Chief Engineer on the 9th and talked to him and showed my testimoruals and handed over the letter Exhibit P .3.
For taking
out the papers I was '.equired to take out money also and
after keepmg money m my pocket I showed the papers to
hun. I said 'I have brought the testimonials also. f have
brought the Engineer also.'
You discuss with him and give
. final reply.
'He replied', Do not talk to me. Speak to the
. Jixecntive Engineer. 'I said', There
is
corruption.
Otherwise why my certificates have beeu removed from my tender~
'Thereupon he began to say, 'I am not prepared to hear this.
much.' Whereupon I replied, 'You are Head of the Depart-
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SUPREME COURT REPORTS
( 1974 J 1 s.c.1t.
ment. If you do not hear who will hear ?' 'Thereupon he replied, 'Do not talk anything 1riore with me ?' Whereupon
I said, 'Are you also included in that corruption ?' There·
upon, he pressed the buzzer.
I had a hot talk with him.
My Engineer also told him.
Thereupon he replied, 'I am
not prepared to hear anything.' Then my Engineer spoke
in Sindhi language, 'He is not hearing I go downstairs and I
send any other person.' At the same time Wadhwa Sahab
threw away the testimonials and said, 'Where those persons
have gone ?'
\\1tereupon I replied, 'They have gone down·
stairs'. He questioned, 'What did they say?'
I replied,
'They have not said an}thing.' 'Then I put the testimonials
in my pocket and he pressed the buzzer."
In defence, the accused examined one witness V. S. Asnani, ConsultA
B
ing Engineer.
According to this witness, he went with the accused
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on the day of occurrence to Wadhwa PW. The witness supported the
version of the occurrence as given in the statement of the accused
under section 342 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
The trial court was of the view that Wadhwa PW was not wholly
reliable witness. As regards Gupta and Tiwari, it was observed that
they were interested witnesses.
Reference was also made to some
discrepancies in the prosecution evidence as well as to the fact that
there was no mention in the first information report of the extra judicial confession of the accused. The version given by the accused, in
the oplnio::l'of the trial court, could not be said to be unreasonable. In
the result the trial court gave the benefit of doubt to the accused and
acquitted him.
On appeal th·~ High Court considere9 the evidence adduced in the
case by the prosecution and found the same to be reliable. The High
Court disagreed with the trial court that the prosecution evidence
suffered from infirmities.
The defence version was rejected by the
High Court .as unworthy of evidence. In the result the appeal was
ac~epted and the accused was convicted and sentenced as above.
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on behalf of the appellant has
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assailed the judgment of the High Court and has contended that there
was no sufficient ground · for the High Court to reverse the judgment
of acquittal of the trial court. If two views, according to the learned
counsel, were possible in the matter, the view which was favourable to
the accused and bad been taken py the trial court should be adopted.
As against that, Mr. Ram Panjwani on behalf of the State submits
that the view taken by the trial court was clear! y unreasonable and
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there were good and valid grounds for the 'High Court to interfere with
the judgment of the trial court. We find force in the submission of
Mr. Ram Panjwani.
The prosecution in order to bring the charge home to the accused
has examined Wadhwa (PW 1).
The witness gave evidence in support of the prosei::ntion case as reproduced above and deposed about
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the offer of the envelope containing currency notes by the accused to
him.
We have been taken throusJi the evidence of the witness and
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MOHANDAS v. M.P. STATE (Khanna, I.)
641
find n~ cogent ground _as to why his evidence should not be accepted.
The witness had no arumus agamst the accused. The witness even did
not _know the accused earlier and had met him only once before on
Apnl 7, 1966 when the accused had seen him in his office and had
made some representation regarding his tender. In the circumstances
we can discover no particular reason as to why Wadhwa should falsely
involve the accused in this case.
The trial court did not place much reliance upon the testimony of
Wadhwa because the witness admitted that complaints had been made
against him for showing favouritism as well as for corruption and highhandedness.
On some occasions the witness also had to give explanation to clarify some particular action.
The accused also placed on
record letters and articles published in a local paper, copies of which
are D2, D3, D4 and D5.
In this respect we find that documents D2
to ·ns contained general allegations of irregularities in HEL. There
wern no allegations in those writings against Wadhwa by name or by
designation. As regards the complaints made against Wadhwa, there
is nothing to show that the authorities concerned found substance in
any of those complaints. As things
are, such complaints a.re even
made against senior officers who are very honest.
In the absenc~ of
material to show that substance was found in any of the complaints
made against Wadhwa, it would, in our opinion, be riot proper to
infer that Wadhwa is a person of doubtful integrity from the mere
fact that sometimes complaints were received against him. Another
reason which weighed with the trial court in not placing much reliance
upon the testimony of Wadhwa was the fact that in answer to a question
relating to the details of the design of the tanks in question, the witness replied that it was his prerogative as Chief Engineer incharge of
construction to decide as to what he should do. The above answer
would show that the witness used inappropriate language in describing his powers and functions. The answer might also reveal that. the
witness had exaggerated notion of the authority vested in him,
but
the~ facts would hardly warrant an inference that Wadhwa PW is
not a very truthful witness and the C-Ourt cannot place much reliance
upon his testimony.
The conduct of Wadhwa immediately after the offer to him of the
envelope containing currency notes by the accused lends considerable
support to his testimony. Wadhwa immediately pressed the buzzer
and called rus Personal Assistant Shrivastava PW. Shrivastava PW was
then told by Wadhwa that the accUSl::d had offered him bribe.
Wadhwa also told Shrivastava to take out the envelope containing
currency notes from the trousers' pocket of the accused. Shrivastava
then took out the envelope containing currency notes
from
the
trouser;' pocket of the accused. The envelope was then found to
contain 30 currency notes of Rs. 100 each. The evidence of Wadhwa
in this respect is corroborated by that of Shrivastava. 'PW. Shrivastava
too had no animus against the acciised and it is not explained as to
why Shrivastava should falsely depose against the accused in this case.
It has been p0inted out by Mr. Hardy that Wadhwa did not mention in report Pl dictated by him that he had told Shrivastava about
the offer of bribe by the- accused to him. This omission appears to
642
SUPREME COURT REPORTS
[ 1974] 1 s.c.R.
have been due to the fact that Wadhwa did not give oomplete details
in the report dictated by him. As mentioned earlier, there is nothing
to show as to why Shrivastava should falsely depose against the
accused. The fact that Shrivastava was
.a Personal Assistant of
Wadhwa would hardly justify rejection of his testimony,
especially
when Wadhwa himself had no animus against the accused. In any
case, it):> mentioned in report Pl and is also admitte~ 1?Y the accused
in his statement under section 342 of the Code of Cnnunal Procedure
that Shrivastava took out Rs. 3,000 from the trousers' pocket of the
accused under the diI ections of W adhwa. There is nothing to show
that the accused protested against the taking out of the currency notes
from his pocket by Shrivastava under the directions of Wadhwa. If
the accused was an innocent person and had no guilty conscience, he
would in the normal course have flared up and not meekly submitted
b the recovery of currency notes from his pocket by Shrivastava under
the directions of Wadhwa. The conduct of Wadhwa in directing
Shrivastava to take out the envelope containing currency notes from
the pocket of the accused is in consonance with the prosecution case
.and belies the defence version.
The evidence of Gupta and Tiwari PWs regarding the extra judicial
confession made by the accused after the arrival of these witnesses
lends further corroboration to the evidence of Wadhwa. These two
witness, who were senior officers of HEL, had no enmity with the
accused and nothing has been brought out as to why
they should
make false statements against the accused. It is true that Wadhwa
made no mention of the extra judicial confession of the accused in the
report sent by him to the police. This omission might also have been
due to the fact that Wadhwa did not give full details in the report
dictated by him. Be that as it may, even if the evidence regarding the
extra judicial confession of the accused were excluded from consideration, the other material on record, particularly the testimony and
conduct of Wadhwa as well as the evidence of Shrivastava, furnishes
ample ground for basing the conviction of the accused.
We are not impressed by the plea taken on behalf of the ac:used
that Rs. 3,000, which were recovered from his pocket, had been
brought by him for the purpose of depositing security. The question
of the depositing of the security would have arisen only if and when
the tender would have been accepted. The amount of security in that
event would have to be deposited within 15 days of the date directing
the contractor to do so.
Argument has also been advanced on behalf of the accused appel·
· !ant that it was not a Condition of the tender that the contractor would
use 24 tons of steel in the making of the tanks in question. This mav
be so; but it would not make any material difference so far as the
present case is concerned. The evidence of Wadhwa ·PW shows that
he had learnt from the Assistant Chief Engineer that as against the
accused who had stipulated to use 18 tons of steel, the other contractors had stipulated to use 24 tons of steel. The accused in the circwnstances, might have beoome apprehensive that his tender in spite of
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MOHANDAS v. M.P. STATE (Khanna, J.)
643
his lowest quotation might not be accepted. Necessity might conse·
quently have been felt by the acmised to offer illegal gratification with
a view to secure a favourable decision in the matter of the acceptffilce of the tender.
The view taken by the trial court in rejecting the evidence . of
Wadhwa, in our opinion, was clearly unreasonable and the High
Court, in our opinion, had cogent grounds to interfere with the judgment of acquittal of the trial court. We are unable to find any infir uty
in the appraisement of the evidence by the High Court as may induce
us to take a different view.
Reference on behalf of the appellant has been made to the decision
of this Court in the case of Kanu Ambu Vish v. State of Maharashtra(')
wherein it was observed that the High Court in reversing a judgment
of acquittal should not only consider all matters on record, including
the reasons given by the trial court in respect of the order of acquittal,
but should particularly consider those aspects which are in favour of
the accused, and ought not also act on conjectures or surmises. The
above dictum, in our opinion, cannot be of much avail to the appellant
because we find that the High Court in reversing the order of acquittal consdiered the matters on record, including the reasons given by
the trial court, as well as those aspects which could possibly be claimed
by the accused to be favourable to him.
It is well settled that the High Court in appeal under section 417
of the Code of Criminal Procedure has full power to review at large
the evidence on which the order of acquittal was founded and to reach
the oonclusion that upon the evidence the order of acquittal should be
reversed. No limitation should be placed upon that power unless it be
found expressly stated in the Code, but in exercising the ,power conferred by the Code and before reaching its conclusion upon fact the
High Court should give proper weight and consideration to such
matters as (1) the views of the trial judge as to the credibility of the
witnesses; (2) the presumption of innocence in favour of the accused,
a presumption certainly not weakened by the fact that he has been
acquitted at his trial; ( 3) the right of the accused to the benefit of any
doubt; and ( 4) the slowness of an appellate court in distnrbing a finding of fact arrived by a judge who had the advantage of seeing the
witnesses. We have been taken through the judgments of the trial
dourt and the High Court and we find that the judgment of the High
Court is not vitiated by any such infirmity as may call for interference
by this Court.
Before we part with this case, we would like to observe that as
long as an impression exists that corruption is prevalent and that unless one pays to somebody things are not done, there would be always
persons who would feel the urge to offer bribe. Bribe would be offered
not only to get an undue favour but also to avoid unnecessary harassment and to see that no obstruction or delay is caused in getting the
most legitimate work done. To prevent the repetition of crimes like
(:) A. I. R. 1971 S. C. 2256.
644
SUPREME COURT REPORTS
[ 1974] 1 s.c.R.
the one of which the appellant has been found guilty, it is necessary
A
to inculcate a general feeling that things are done in due course uninfiuenced by extraneous considerations. It would 'be unfortunate that,
rightly or wrongly, an impression were to exist that without payment
of illegal gratification, things would not be done. At the same time, the
position in law is that if' one makes an offer of bribe to a public
servant. he would be guilty of the offence under section 165A Indian
Penal Code. The courts are concerned only with the fact whether the
B
person arraigned as an accused before them ll. guilty of the offence with
which he is charged. The finding regarding the guilt of the accused
cannot be affected by any consideration of the social and administra·
tive milieu in which the offence is committed. Once the guilt is
proved, as it has been in the oase of the appellant, the law must take
its course.
The appeal fails and is dismissed.
s.c.
Appeal dismissed.