In a shocking example of judicial disarray and apathy, the Delhi High Court (HC) has set aside the conviction and 6-year jail term awarded to a man in 2003, as the trial court record has been ‘lost’, meaning material documents including witness depositions are now not available for perusal after the man appealed his conviction.
The HC set aside the trial court order convicting the man for culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
“I am of the view that in order to affirm the conviction of the appellant, the perusal of the trial court record is the essential element of hearing of the appeal. Every appellant has a right to satisfy the Appellate Court that the material evidence available on record did not justify his conviction and this is a valuable right which cannot be denied to an appellant,” said HC Justice Jasmeet Singh.
“As per settled principles of criminal jurisprudence, every accused carries with him the presumption of innocence even at the appellate stage. The appeal is allowed and the order of judgment dated 20.10.2003 and order of sentence dated 23.10.2003 are hereby set aside,” the court ordered.
Almost all the trial court records in the case – deposition of witnesses, police inquiry report, seizure memos, arrest memos, post mortem report – had gone ‘missing’ and could not be re-constructed. The HC also ruled that a re-trial was ‘not in the interest of justice’.
“The order dated 12.11.2009 categorically states that the trial court record has been lost. I am of the view that in the present case, every possible effort has been made to re-construct the trial court record. Despite all the efforts by this court, the Registry, the learned counsel for the parties, the trial court record has not been re-constructed as the same is lost,” the court said.
It also noted that in the present case, the witnesses had already turned hostile and the trial court’s impugned judgment was based on ‘preponderance of probabilities’.
