Date:
23rd July 2021
Coram:
Hon’ble Dr. Chandrachud, M.R. Shah
Parties:
Appellant: Lakshman Singh
Respondent: State of Bihar (now Jharkhand)
Subject
The case deals with charges levelled against the accused person for rioting and interrupting the process of the conduction of an election. The accused was convicted by the court under Sections 323, 307, 147, 149 and 379 of the IPC.
Issues
- Whether the offences committed under Section 323 and 147 of the IPC valid or not?
- Whether the Injury Report is brought on record and are they comprehensible to be convicted under Section 323 of IPC?
Overview
- An FIR was lodged at Paatan Police Station by the first informant, Rajeev Ranjan Tiwari on 26.11.1989, alleging inter alia that on the eve of general election, he was working as a worker of Bhartiya Janta Party at village.
- The accused persons, who belong to another village Naudiha came armed with lathis, sticks, country made pistols and asked him to stop issuing voter slips and handover the voters list which he was possessing and, on his refusal, the accused persons started physically beating him with hands, fists, lathis and sticks; the brother of the first informant, upon knowing about the incident came to rescue him and at that time accused.
- He fired gun shot at injured with his country made pistol, due to which he received pellet injuries. The accused fired at another, due to which he was injured.
- It was further alleged that due to scuffle, accused snatched wrist watches; the villagers rushed there and then all the accused persons ran away towards village Naudhia.
Relevant Provisions
- Section 147 of the IPC discusses about the punishment for rioting which tells that whoever is guilty of rioting, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to two years, or with fine, or with both.
- Section 149 of the IPC talks about how every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object. If an offence is committed by any member of an unlawful assembly in prosecution of the common object of that assembly, or such as the members of that assembly knew to be likely to be committed in prosecution of that object, every person who, at the time of the committing of that offence, is a member of the same assembly, is guilty of that offence.
- Section 307 describes that whoever does any act with such intention or knowledge, and under such circumstances that, if he by that act caused death, he would be guilty of murder, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years, and shall also be liable to fine; and, if hurt is caused to any person by such act, the offender shall be liable either to imprisonment for life, or to such punishment as is hereinbefore mentioned.
- Section 323 of the IPC gives about the punishment for voluntarily causing hurt. Whoever, except in the case provided for by section 334, voluntarily causes hurt, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to one year, or with fine which may extend to one thousand rupees, or with both.
Judgement Analysis
- The Bench comprising Justices DY Chandrachud and MR Shah observed that the evidence of injured witnesses is entitled to a great weight and very cogent and convincing grounds are required to discard their evidence.
- The court further noted that all the witnesses were consistent in their statements and they have fully supported the case of the prosecution.
- The Court further observed that the presence of all the accused persons at the time of incident and their active participation has been established andproved by the prosecution by examining the witnesses who are the independent witnesses and injured witnesses also.
Conclusion
The learned Trial Court framed the charge against the accused persons for the offences under Sections 323, 307, 147, 149 and 379 of the IPC.
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