Snehal Upadhyay-
Published on August 03, 2021, at 3:12 PM
The Supreme Court observed that the burden of proof on an accused concerning the defence taken under Section 313 of the Code of Criminal Procedure is not beyond all reasonable doubt as the duty is on the prosecution to prove the charge.
The Division Bench comprising of Justices Navin Sinha and R. Subhash Reddy observed this while dealing with a case where a woman had murdered her sister-in-law.
In the aforementioned case, the deceased was found dead in her matrimonial home after one and a half years of marriage, she had 95% of burn injuries. The younger brother who is 11-12 years old was the only eyewitness to the case, the deceased’s sister-in-law along with other accused was charged with murder.
The woman was convicted by the Trial Court relying on the testimony of the only eyewitness who stated that she stuffed cloth in the mouth of the deceased after which she was set on fire by other accused.
The woman made an appeal in the High Court where she had taken particular defence in reference to Section 313 of the CrPC that she resided in her matrimonial home, which was separate and at a distance.
It was further contended that the grievances made by the child witness against her were never put to her under Section 313 of the CrPC thus depriving her of a valuable opportunity of getting defence which debauches her conviction.
The High Court quashed her appeal.
The Bench while observing the eye witness stated, “The discussion and reasoning by the Trial Court that absence of any cloth in the mouth was irrelevant because if the deceased suffered hundred per cent burns the cloth naturally could not be available, suggesting that it would have been burnt also is completely fallacious.”
Though, the Court was bound to disbelieve the testimony submitted by the child witness, as with regard to criminal jurisprudence it’s the authority of the Court to decide the evidentiary value of any child witness the Court may discard the testimony if it deems fits.
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Also Read: J&K HC: Omission to record statement of accused not fatal U/S 242 CrPc[J&K]