{"id":120328,"date":"1996-01-23T00:00:00","date_gmt":"1996-01-22T18:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.legalindia.com\/judgments\/harbans-lal-vs-state-of-punjab-on-23-january-1996"},"modified":"2019-02-28T01:30:52","modified_gmt":"2019-02-27T20:00:52","slug":"harbans-lal-vs-state-of-punjab-on-23-january-1996","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.legalindia.com\/judgments\/harbans-lal-vs-state-of-punjab-on-23-january-1996","title":{"rendered":"Harbans Lal vs State Of Punjab on 23 January, 1996"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"docsource_main\">Supreme Court of India<\/div>\n<div class=\"doc_title\">Harbans Lal vs State Of Punjab on 23 January, 1996<\/div>\n<div class=\"doc_citations\">Equivalent citations: 1996 AIR 1186, \t\t  1996 SCC  (2) 350<\/div>\n<div class=\"doc_author\">Author: A Anand<\/div>\n<div class=\"doc_bench\">Bench: Anand, A.S. (J)<\/div>\n<pre>           PETITIONER:\nHARBANS LAL\n\n\tVs.\n\nRESPONDENT:\nSTATE OF PUNJAB\n\nDATE OF JUDGMENT:\t23\/01\/1996\n\nBENCH:\nANAND, A.S. (J)\nBENCH:\nANAND, A.S. (J)\nMAJMUDAR S.B. (J)\n\nCITATION:\n 1996 AIR 1186\t\t  1996 SCC  (2) 350\n JT 1996 (6)\t 5\t  1996 SCALE  (1)629\n\n\nACT:\n\n\n\nHEADNOTE:\n\n\n\nJUDGMENT:\n<\/pre>\n<p>\t\t\t O R D E R<br \/>\n     The appellant  along with\this two sons Pawan Kumar and<br \/>\nDial Ram  were sent  up for  trial in  connection  with\t the<br \/>\nmurder of  Punni Devi  &#8211; wife of the appellant and mother of<br \/>\nPawan Kumar  and Dial  Ram on  the night  intervening  16\/17<br \/>\nOctober, 1981.\tThe trial  court  convicted  all  the  three<br \/>\naccused for  offences under  Section  302\/34  IPC  vide\t its<br \/>\njudgment dated\t15.6.1982 and sentenced them to undergo life<br \/>\nimprisonment. On  appeal, the  High Court  gave\t benefit  of<br \/>\ndoubt to  Pawan Kumar  and Dial\t Ram and acquitted them. The<br \/>\nconviction and\tsentence  of  the  appellant  was,  however,<br \/>\nmaintained.\n<\/p>\n<p>     By special\t leave, the appellant has called in question<br \/>\nhis conviction and sentence.\n<\/p>\n<p>     We have  heard learned  counsel  for  the\tparties\t and<br \/>\nexamined the record.\n<\/p>\n<p>     That Punni\t Devi died  as a  result of burn injuries on<br \/>\nthe night  intervening October\t16\/17, 1981, in the house of<br \/>\nher husband  Harbans Lal  appellant, is\t not in dispute. The<br \/>\nquestion, however,  is whether the prosecution has been able<br \/>\nto establish that the appellant committed the crime.\n<\/p>\n<p>     The prosecution  examined PW-11  Kartar Singh and PW-12<br \/>\nKarnail Singh  &#8211; grandson  of PW-11, as the two witnesses of<br \/>\nthe  occurrence.   The\tHigh  Court  while  considering\t the<br \/>\nsubmissions relating to the evidence &#8220;was not without force&#8221;<br \/>\nbut went on to say that even if the evidence of that witness<br \/>\nwas &#8216;ignored&#8217;,\tthe fact remains that the deceased was found<br \/>\ndead in\t her own  house where  she  was\t residing  with\t the<br \/>\nappellant and  that  it\t was  not  a  case  of\tsuicide\t and<br \/>\ntherefore the  appellant must have burnt her to death. Thus,<br \/>\nthe  High   Court  appears   to\t have\trelied\t upon\tthat<br \/>\ncircumstances to  uphold the  conviction and sentence of the<br \/>\nappellant.\n<\/p>\n<p>     With a  view to satisfy our judicial conscious, we have<br \/>\nperused the evidence of PW-11 Kartar Singh and PW-12 Karnail<br \/>\nSingh but  their evidence does not inspire confidence. PW-11<br \/>\nKartar Singh  deposed that  on the  night in question, while<br \/>\npassing through the house of Harbans Lal he peeped through a<br \/>\nwindow of  the house and saw that the appellant had kept his<br \/>\nfoot on\t the neck  of Punni  Devi deceased while Pawan Kumar<br \/>\nhad caught  hold of  her arms  and Dial Ram of her legs. Why<br \/>\nPW11 had to peep through the window is not explained by him,<br \/>\nparticularly when  it is  not his case that the deceased was<br \/>\nshouting or  raising an\t alarm? Karnail\t Singh PW-12 deposed<br \/>\nthat after  PW11 had  peeped  through  the  window,  he\t did<br \/>\nlikewise  and\tnoticed\t that  Pawan  Kumar  was  sprinkling<br \/>\nkerosene oil on the body of Punni Devi while Harbans Lal had<br \/>\nput his\t foot on  her abdomen, and he (i.e. Harbans Lal) set<br \/>\nher on\tfire with  a match  stick. Thus, these two witnesses<br \/>\ndeposed about  two stages  of the  occurrence they  had seen<br \/>\nthrough the  window. Their  evidence appears  to  be  rather<br \/>\nartificial. These  two witnessed  appear to  us to be got up<br \/>\nwitnesses. They\t saw a\tgruesome murder being committed with<br \/>\ntheir own  eyes and yet for reasons best known to them, they<br \/>\ndid not\t raise any  alarm but  went their  way and  did\t not<br \/>\ndisclose about\tthe occurrence\tto  anyone,  not  only\tthat<br \/>\nevening but  even till\tthe third  day after the occurrence.<br \/>\nTheir conduct  was thus,  most\tunnatural.  This  creates  a<br \/>\nserious\t doubt\tabout  their  credit  worthiness.  From\t the<br \/>\nevidence of  DW-4 and  DW-5 it\ttranspires that PW11 did not<br \/>\neven have  a ration  card in that ward and even his name was<br \/>\nnot entered on the voters list of that area. His presence in<br \/>\nthe area  is therefore, doubtful. The evidence of both these<br \/>\nwitnesses, PW-11  and PW-12,  has not impressed us. The High<br \/>\nCourt also  does not  appear to\t have  found  them  reliable<br \/>\nwitnesses. Their  conduct belies  the possibility  of  their<br \/>\npresence and  various infirmities in their evidence, renders<br \/>\nit unsafe to rely upon their testimony. The only other piece<br \/>\nof evidence  relied upon  by the prosecution is the recovery<br \/>\nof the\tdeed body with extensive burns from the house of the<br \/>\nappellant. That\t circumstance, however, is not sufficient to<br \/>\nhold the  appellant guilty.  It is  not conclusive in nature<br \/>\nand is\tnot compatible\tonly with the guilt of the appellant<br \/>\nand   wholly   incompatible   with   his   innocence.\tThis<br \/>\ncircumstances can only create suspicion about the complicity<br \/>\nof the appellant but suspicion cannot be allowed to take the<br \/>\nplace of  proof. The  High Court,  after having dis-believed<br \/>\nPW-11 and given benefit of doubt to Pawan Kumar and Dial Ram<br \/>\nby  accepting\ttheir  statements   that  they\twere  living<br \/>\nseparately fell in error in convicting the appellant only on<br \/>\nthe supposition\t that the  appellant  was  living  with\t the<br \/>\ndeceased, ignoring  the statement  of the appellant recorded<br \/>\nunder Section  313 Cr. P.C. to the effect that on account of<br \/>\nhis strained  relations with  his wife,\t he used to sleep at<br \/>\nthe shop and not in the house and that after he learnt about<br \/>\nthe death  of his  wife at about 10\/11 A.M. on 17th October,<br \/>\n1981, he  sent information to the relations of his wife. The<br \/>\nprosecution did\t not lead  any evidence\t to  show  that\t the<br \/>\nappellant was  living in  the house  and not  in  the  shop.<br \/>\nSince, the High Court accepted the statements of Pawan Kumar<br \/>\nand Dial  Ram recorded\tunder Section 313 Cr. P.C. that they<br \/>\nwere living  separately and  gave them the benefit of doubt,<br \/>\nwe are\tat loss\t to understand\tas to why the same yardstick<br \/>\nwas not applied while appreciating the evidence in so far as<br \/>\nthe appellant is concerned.\n<\/p>\n<p>     There is  yet another serious lacuna in the prosecution<br \/>\ncase. The  failure of  the High\t Court to  notice, let alone<br \/>\nconsider and discuss, the evidence of ten defence witnesses,<br \/>\nbesides the  court witness  Shri G.S.  Bhullar, S.S.P.,\t was<br \/>\nhighly\timproper   and\tin   our  opinion,  the\t failure  to<br \/>\nappreciate the defence evidence has resulted in mis-carriage<br \/>\nof justice and the appellant has been seriously prejudiced.\n<\/p>\n<p>     The evidence  on the  record in  our opinion  fails  to<br \/>\nconnect the appellant with the crime and the prosecution has<br \/>\nnot  proved   the  case\t  against  the\tappellant  beyond  a<br \/>\nreasonable doubt.  The appellant  is entitled to the benefit<br \/>\nof the\tdoubt. The  conviction of  the appellant  under\t the<br \/>\ncircumstnaces cannot  be sustained.  We, accordingly, accept<br \/>\nthis appeal and set aside the conviction and sentence of the<br \/>\nappellant. The\tappellant is  on bail.\tHis bail bonds shall<br \/>\nstand discharged.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Supreme Court of India Harbans Lal vs State Of Punjab on 23 January, 1996 Equivalent citations: 1996 AIR 1186, 1996 SCC (2) 350 Author: A Anand Bench: Anand, A.S. (J) PETITIONER: HARBANS LAL Vs. RESPONDENT: STATE OF PUNJAB DATE OF JUDGMENT: 23\/01\/1996 BENCH: ANAND, A.S. (J) BENCH: ANAND, A.S. (J) MAJMUDAR S.B. (J) CITATION: 1996 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-120328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-supreme-court-of-india"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Harbans Lal vs State Of Punjab on 23 January, 1996 - Free Judgements of Supreme Court &amp; High Court | Legal India<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.legalindia.com\/judgments\/harbans-lal-vs-state-of-punjab-on-23-january-1996\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Harbans Lal vs State Of Punjab on 23 January, 1996 - Free Judgements of Supreme Court &amp; 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