Conduct of accused alone can't justify conviction sans supporting evidence: SC

New Delhi, Aug 5 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Tuesday said the conduct of an accused alone couldn't justify conviction in the absence of cogent and credible supporting evidence as it acquitted a man in a murder case.

A bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and R Mahadevan, therefore, allowed an accused's appeal against a January order of the Chhattisgarh High Court.

"To put it succinctly, although relevant, the accused's conduct alone cannot justify a conviction in the absence of cogent and credible supporting evidence," the bench said.

The accused was held guilty for murder by a trial court but the high court modified the offence to culpable homicide not amounting to murder.

The top court observed the high court's judgment was "erroneous" on several grounds.

"The first mis-step was that the high court examined the medical evidence on record in detail and then proceeded to directly corroborate it with the contents of the FIR lodged by the appellant himself," the bench noted.

The evidence of an expert witness is of advisory character and can't solely be used to hold the accused guilty of murder, it noted.

The state's counsel said the appellant had gone to the police station and lodged the FIR in the case in 2019.

The bench said like any other piece of evidence, the conduct of the accused was only one of the circumstances the court might consider, in conjunction with other direct or circumstantial evidence on record.

It said whenever a court was confronted with the question whether the offence was murder or culpable homicide not amounting to murder, it would be convenient to approach the problem in three stages.

The bench said the question to be considered at the first stage was whether the accused committed an act which caused the death of another person.

"Proof of a causal connection between the act of the accused and the resulting death leads to the second stage, for considering whether that act of the accused amounts to 'culpable homicide' as defined in Section 299 of the IPC," it said.

The bench said if the answer to this question was, prima facie, found in the affirmative, the next stage involves considering the application of Section 300 of the IPC, which defines murder.

At this stage, the top court said, the court must determine whether the facts proved by the prosecution bring the case within the ambit of any of the four clauses of definition of "murder" contained in Section 300.

"If the answer to this is in the negative, the offence would be 'culpable homicide not amounting to murder', punishable under either the first or the second part of Section 304, depending respectively on whether the second or the third clause of Section 299 is applicable," it said.

The bench went on, "However, if the answer is in the positive, but the case falls within any of the exceptions enumerated in Section 300, the offence would still be 'culpable homicide not amounting to murder', punishable under the Part I of Section 304 of the IPC." PTI ABA ABA AMK AMK