Acquittal by trial court carries a lot of weight: SC

NEW DELHI: In the long and tortuous three-tier litigation system in India, what is the value of a trial court order acquitting an accused when the state has the option of appealing against it before the high court and then in the Supreme Court? Quite a lot, answered the Supreme Court through a recent judgment. The clean chit given by the trial court provides a "double presumption" of innocence in favour of the accused, said a three-judge Bench headed by Justice Arijit Pasayat. "First, the presumption of innocence is available to him (the accused) under the fundamental principle of criminal jurisprudence that every person shall be presumed to be innocent unless he is proved guilty by a competent court of law. Secondly, the accused having secured his acquittal, the presumption of his innocence is further reinforced, reaffirmed and strengthened by the trial court," said Justice Pasayat, writing the judgment for the Bench. But, this was not to bar the appellate courts -- the HC or the SC -- from reappreciating the evidence and, if necessary, quashing the acquittal if evidence was found sufficient for the purpose, the Bench said. "An appellate court has full power to review, reappreciate and reconsider the evidence upon which the order of acquittal is founded," it said. After such reappreciation, if there were two possible views -- one favouring the acquittal as had already been recorded by the trial court and the other pointing towards his guilt -- then the appellate court should go with the trial court's finding. "If two reasonable conclusions are possible on the basis of the evidence on record, the appellate court should not disturb the finding of the acquittal recorded by the trial court," the Bench said.

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