Team  SoOLEGAL

Lack of Motive in a case which depends on circumstantial evidence would tilt in the favour of accused: SC

Team SoOLEGAL 28 Sep 2020 4:41pm

Lack of Motive in a case which depends on circumstantial evidence would tilt in the favour of accused: SC

The Supreme Court of India has reiterated that if there is a lack of motive in a case which depends on circumstantial evidence would constitute a factor that would favour the accused.

In the present case the accused were convicted of murder by the Himachal Pradesh High Court but were acquitted by the Supreme Court through its bench comprising of Justices Ashok Bhushan, R. Subhash Reddy and MR Shah.

The accused through one of his contentions has raised a point before the court that prosecution was unable to prove the motive and therefore the conviction must be set aside.

 In this regard the bench referred to the case of Suresh Chandra Bahri v State of Bihar 1995 Supp (1) SCC 80 and it was stated by the bench that, “if motive is proved that would supply a link in the chain of circumstantial evidence but the absence thereof cannot be a ground to reject the prosecution case. However, at the same time, as observed by this Court in the case referred above, absence of motive in a case depending on circumstantial evidence is a factor that weighs in favour of the accused.

Henceforth, the conviction was set aside and the order was given in the favour of the accused. The court while setting aside the conviction also noted that the findings of the trial court were based entirely on the evidence on record and it cannot be said any material evidence was not considered by the trial court. Furthermore, it added that the HC was not justified in reversing the trial court’s order.



Tagged: circumstantial evidence   SC   Supreme Court   Himachal Pradesh High Court   Justice Ashok Bhushan   Justice R. Subhash Reddy   Justice MR Shah  
Did you find this write up useful? YES 3 NO 0
×

C2RMTo Know More

Something Awesome Is In The Work

0

DAYS

0

HOURS

0

MINUTES

0

SECONDS

Sign-up and we will notify you of our launch.
We’ll also give some discount for your effort :)

* We won’t use your email for spam, just to notify you of our launch.
×

SAARTHTo Know More

Launching Soon : SAARTH, your complete client, case, practise & document management SAAS application with direct client chat feature.

If you want to know more give us a Call at :+91 98109 29455 or Mail info@soolegal.com