Supreme Court of India
Rajaram vs The State Of Madhya Pradesh on 16 December, 2022
REPORTABLE
CRIMINAL APPEAL NO(S). 2311 OF 2022 [@ SPECIAL LEAVE PETITION (CRL.) NO(S). 6762 of 2022]
Special leave granted. The appellant (husband of the deceased) is aggrieved by his conviction under Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the sentence imposed on him. His appeal, against the conviction and sentence in respect of that offence, was dismissed by the impugned judgment of the Madhya Pradesh High Court.
- It was lastly urged on behalf of the appellant that since the prosecution could not prove the charge on the count under Section 304B, he could not have been convicted on the basis of the dying declaration, because Section 32 of the Evidence Act renders relevant only statements relating to the circumstances surrounding the death of the person making it and that in the present case, the only dying declaration, Ex. P-11 nowhere mentions any act of cruelty attributable to the appellant.
- Section 32 of the Evidence Act, which is material for the purposes of this appeal,
all fact dependent, and no stereotypical approach can be adopted by courts. In Laxman vs. State of Maharashtra1 a five-member Bench of this court explained the position, in law
S.K. Chaturvedi (P.W.15) has stated that he had recorded the statements of the witnesses including that of injured/deceased Pushpa. If the police statement of injured/deceased Pushpa is considered then at the end of the statement, it is mentioned that her condition is very bad. Therefore, it is not clear as to whether the injured/deceased Pushpa was in a fit state of mind or not. Even otherwise, this witness has not clarified that on what date he had recorded the statement of injured/deceased Pushpa. It is true that while recording the police statement under Section 161 of Cr.P.C., this witness was not required to obtain the fitness certificate from the Doctor, but in view of the last line of her statement, that ” her condition is very bad”, this Court is of the considered opinion, that it would not be safe to rely on the Police Statement of the injured/deceased Pushpa, Ex. P.26.
- Accordingly, the Police Statement of the injured/deceased Pushpa Bai, Ex. P.26 is hereby disbelieved.”
.21. Having regard to the above circumstances, especially the fact that the only evidence against the appellant, i.e., Ex. P-26 was discredited by the High Court, there is no other material to sustain his conviction. For these reasons, the impugned judgment and the appellant’s conviction and sentence are hereby set aside. . The appeal is allowed but without any order as to costs.