N Criminal Appeal No 611 of 1981
Appeal by Special leave from the Judgment and Order dated the 6th February 1981 of the Allahabad High Court in Crl
Appeal No 11478 of 1980
Dalveer Bhandari HM Singh and Ranbir Singh Yadav for the Appellant
RL Kohli and Girish Chandra for the Respondent
Ram Jethmalani Ms Rani Jethmalani and SB Jethmalani for the Intervener
The judgment of the Court was delivered by FAZAL ALI J
Our hard won freedom from British yoke ushered in a new era of progress and prosperity resulting in setting up of a large number of industries of all sorts and kinds in various spheres some of them being Government controlled and some of them in the private sector
Labour and industrial laws of the country passed after independence created a sense of new awakening in the labour force which became more and more conscious of the rights and privileges conferred on them by the laws
Although disputes between the labour and management is now a common feature of the industrial life of the country yet seldom in the history of industrial disputes has it ever happened that a dispute assumed such large proportions as to take the toll of a human life resulting in a cold blooded murder in broad day light and that too in a court premises
4 Such an extraordinary event is the subject matter of this appeal by special leave against the judgment of the Allahabad High Court where a Secretary of the labour Union seems to have run amuck and fired several shorts by a country made pistol shots on an officer of the management and killed him at the spot The facts of the case have been detailed in the judgment of the learned Sessions Judge and the High Court and need not be repeated
The matter therefore lies within a narrow compass and we purpose only to examine the reasons and the inferences drawn by the High Court for acquitting the respondent Madhu
Ms Hindustan Construction Company hereinafter referred to as the company  had undertaken the construction of Jamuna Hydel Project in Khadar District Dehradun
To begin with it appears that there was some dispute about the dearness allowance claim of the labour from the management which was referred to the Industrial Tribunal
The respondent who was the Secretary of the Union was looking after the case on behalf of the workers while PWs 5 and 7 were the officers appearing on behalf of the management before the Tribunal
The deceased SJ Sirgaonkar was Deputy Personnel Manager of the Bombay Branch of Ms Hindustan Construction Company
He was shot dead by the respondent after he deceased alongwith the other officers of the management had come out of the Tribunal s office at Meerut after filing their written statements
Thereafter one of the eye witnesses SK Gui PW 7 asked someone to give a telephone call to the police station which was nearby on receipt of which the police arrived at the spot seized the pistol and took the accused and some of the witnesses to the police station where a form FIR was registered
The Panchanama was prepared and other formalities were however done at the spot
The learned Sessions Judge after a careful consideration of the evidence of the three main eye witnesses PWs 5 6 and 7 as also the evidence of Durga Das DW 1 came to a clear conclusion that the prosecution case against the respondent was fully proved and accordingly be convicted the respondent under 5 section 302 IPC and sentenced him to imprisonment for life
He also convicted the respondent under section 251a of the Indian Arms Act and sentenced him to one year s RI The respondent went up in appeal to the High Court against the decision of the Sessions Judge which was reversed by the High Court and the respondent was acquitted of the charges framed against him
Normally this Court does not interfere against the judgment of a High Court purely on appreciation of evidence
But in this case there appears to be very special circumstances which have been either overlooked or not considered by the High Court
Besides this the High Court does not appear to have examined the intrinsic merits of the evidence of the witnesses but has proceeded to acquit the respondent on general grounds which we shall show hereafter are wholly untenable
It appears that July 5 1977 was the date fixed in the Industrial Tribunal Meerut for the parties to file their written statements and in this connection the deceased alongwith the other eye witnesses PWs 5 and 7 attended the Tribunal and PWs 5 and 7 filed their written statements
PW 6 was the standing counsel of the Company and had been representing the same in all labour disputes concerning the Company
The respondent was holding the post of hydel lineman of the Project and was the Secretary of the labour Union
DW 1 Durga Das who was also at the spot was the Vice President of the said Union
It appears that after filing the written statements at about 1130 am the witnesses and the respondent came out of the court premises and were talking between themselves
As soon as the respondent and Sirgaonkar the deceased reached the main gate of the Tribunal building the respondent is alleged to have taken out a country made pistol and fired five shots one after the other in quick succession with the result that Sirgaonkar fell down and died at the spot
Thereafter the respondent threw away the pistol but he was surrounded by the witnesses and later handed over to the police on their arrival
It is also alleged by the prosecution that while the firing was going on a telephonic message was sent to the police station Civil Lines Meerut about the firing and it was received by Masroor Ali PW 9 who made an entry to that effect in the general diary at 1139 am
The telephonic information merely conveyed the fact that gunshots 6 were being fired on receipt of the information PW 10
Ram Datt Gautam the Sub Inspector of Police proceeded to the place of occurrence and found the body of Sirgonkar Lying outside the main gate of the Tribunal building and the respondent being apprehended by the witnesses
The police officer took the accused into custody and proceeded to the police station alongwith PW 7 SK Gui where a regular FIR was registered
The usual proceedings about the postmortem and inquest the followed and after a thorough investigation the police submitted a charge sheet against the respondent which resulted in his conviction by the Sessions Judge
This in short is the prosecution case
The main grounds on which the High Court has reversed the judgment of the Sessions Judge may be summarised as follows Durga Das DW 1 who was admittedly at the scene of the occurrence has stated that as the shooting started PW 7 had given a telephonic message to the police station
The High Court by an implied process of reasoning has observed that if PW 7 had given the telephonic message he would have mentioned the name of the assailant because he was a full fledged eye witness but since his name had not been mentioned it is the strongest possible circumstance to discredit the prosecution case
We are however unable to agree with this somewhat involved reasoning of the High Court
In fact DW 1 merely says that Gui telephoned to the police station about the firing and said something in English The High Court seems to have presumed that from this the irresistible inference to be drawn is that Gui did not mention the name of the assailant of the deceased and on this ground alone the prosecution must fail
This argument is based on a serious error
In the first place the telephonic message was an extremely cryptic one and could not be regarded as a FIR in any sense of the term
Secondly assuming that Gui had given the telephonic message in utter chaos and confusion when shots after shots were being fired at the deceased there was no occasion for Gui to have narrated the entire story of the occurrence
In fact in his evidence Gui has denied that he personally telephoned the police but he stated that he asked somebody to telephone the police which appears to be both logical and natural
Moreover such a cryptic information on telephone has been held by this 7 Court to be of no value at all
In Tapindar Singh vs State of Punjab this Court in identical circumstances observed thus The telephone message was received by Hari Singh ASI Police Station City Kotwali at 535 pm
On September 8 1969
The person conveying the information did not disclose his identity nor did he give any other particulars and all that is said to have been conveyed was that firing had taken place at the taxi stand Ludhiana
This was of course recorded in the daily diary of the police station by the police officer responding to the telephone call
But prime facie this cryptic and anonymous oral message which did not in terms clearly specify a cognizable offence cannot be treated as first information report The mere fact that this information was the first in point of time does not by itself clothe it with the character of first information report
 In view of this decision therefore the fundamental reasoning of the High Court falls to the ground
Moreover Durga Das himself does not appear to be an independent witness but he was highly interested because being the Vice President of the labour Union he was looking after the case in tho Industrial Tribunal on behalf of the workers
There is clear evidence of prosecution witnesses that even the brief case of the respondent was handled by DW 1 at the time of the occurrence
Although DW 1 denied this fact it is amply proved by the evidence of PW 5
The only comment made against this witness was that he did not state this fact before the investigating officer
But as this was a matter of detail it may not have been necessary for him to have stated all possible details in his statement to the police
This witness is corroborated by PW 6 an independent witness who says that the brief case of the respondent was being carried by Durga Das
It therefore appears that DW 1 being the Vice President of the Union and a pairvikar of the workers was highly interested and in the face of the evidence of independent witness like PW 6 there is no reason to disbelieve the evidence of PW 5 that the brief case of the respondent was being handled by DW 1
We might state here that the High Court has applied two 8 different standards to assess the evidence of the prosecution and that of the defence
While the High Court accepts the uncorroborated evidence of DW 1 who is as much interested in the dispute as the deceased if not more being Vice President of the Union and also in possession of the brief case of the respondent yet it disbelieves the evidence of PWs 5 and 7 mainly on the ground that they were highly interested
The relevant finding of the High Court on this point may be extracted thus In the first place it shows that Subrat Kumar Gui and MR Bhaumik were mainly responsible for the prosecution of the case although the deceased had been in general supervision of all labour disputes of the company at all the places
In the second place it also points out that these two witnesses were not happy with the appellant who had been representing the cause of the labourers before the Industrial Tribunal and that they were sore about his conduct
In these circumstances these two witnesses could not be said to be independent  Here the High Court completely lost sight of two important facts 1 that PWs 5 and 7 were high officers of the Company and were not likely to depose falsely on a matter like this and 2 that PW 6 who was the standing counsel of the Company and other labour cases for more than 3 decades fully corroborates the evidence of PWs 5 and 7
We have examined the evidence of PWs S and 7 with very great care and caution but we are unable to find any discrepancy or defect in their evidence so as to lead any court to reject the same
On the other hand on a consideration of their evidence
we are satisfied that are throughout consistent and congruous and that their evidence bears a ring of truth We are indeed surprised how the High Court could disbelieve the evidence of the eye witnesses in the case of a cold blooded murder committed in broad day light where the respondent was caught red handed at the spot
The High Court also over looked the crying conduct of the respondent who went on firing one shot after the other so as to make sure that Sirgaonkar does not survive at any cost
Another ground on which the High Court has reversed the 9 judgment of the Sessions Judge is that it is difficult to believe that after the respondent threw the pistol he continued to remain at the spot and did not make any attempt to escape
With due respect this finding of the High Court is also most unrealistic
There is clear evidence of PWs
5 6 and 7 that after the respondent threw down the pistol he was surrounded by the three witnesses so that he could not escape
The High Court has failed to consider this important aspect of the matter
Moreover if a person commits a cold blooded murder in the premises of a court which is bound to be full of other litigants also he cannot think of escaping and is bound to be caught by someone or the other
The High Court was further of the view that it is extremely doubtful that the witnesses could see the incident from inside the court room as there was no door or window through which the incident could be seen
To buttress this observation the High Court seems to have relied on the evidence of DW 1 that the four persons including DW 1 entered the court room as soon as the first shot was fired
This statement is obviously wrong because all the three witnesses stated that the shots were fired while they were outside the court room and they actually saw the respondent firing the shots
It was only after a few shots were fired that they entered the court room and even so they were able to see the whole occurrence from the glass panes of the court room
There is absolutely no evidence on record to show that there were no glass panes in tho window and that the place of occurrence could not be visible from the court room
In these circumstances the conclusion of the High Court is purely speculative and against the weight of evidence on the record
The High Court seems to have placed some reliance on the evidence of DW1 but as he was highly interested his evidence unless corroborated by independent evidence should not have been acted upon in the peculiar facts and circumstances of this case
Lastly the High Court seems to have completely overlooked the fact that there was no reason for three eye witnesses one of whom was a standing counsel far about 30 years to have falsely implicated the respondent merely because he was Secretary of the Union
The consistent course of conduct of the respondent speaks volumes against his innocence
He was caught red handed 10 at the spot and was surrounded by the witnesses so that he could not escape and the police arrived within fifteen minutes of the occurrence and took him to the police station
Some comment was made by the High Court about the delay in the inquest report but that does not appear to be of any consequence if the evidence of the three eye witnesses is to be believed
We have given our anxious consideration to the evidence of the three witnesses PWs 5 6 and 7 and we find ourselves in complete agreement with the Sessions Judge that these witnesses were both reliable and trustworthy
In fact the High Court committed a grave error of law in not going into the intrinsic merits of the evidence of each of the eye witnesses and in discarding the same on general ground which also have no substance
For the reasons given above we are satisfied that this is not a case in which it could be said by any stretch of imagination that another reasonable view may be possible on the evidence and circumstances of the case viz that the accused was innocent
The result is that the appeal is allowed the judgment of the High Court is set aside and the appellant is convicted under s302 of the Indian Panel Code to imprisonment for life as also under s251a of the Indian Arms Act to one year s RI because he was undoubtedly found using a country made pistol which was recovered from the place of occurrence
HSK Appeal allowed


Summary:
The respondent Secretary of the workers union of a construction company DW 1 Vice President of the Union the deceased and PWs
5 and 7 officers of the company and PW 6 standing counsel of the company were all coming out of the office of an industrial tribunal after filing their written statements in a dispute raised by the workers
The prosecution case was that at the main gate of the tribunal s building the respondent suddenly star ted firing from a pistol and shot dead the deceased
As firing was going on a telephonic message conveying the fact that gunshots were being fired was sent to the nearby police station on receipt of the telephonic message the police arrived at the spot seized the pistol and took the respondent and some of the witnesses to the police station where a formal FIR was registered
The Session Judge convicted the accused under section 302 IPC and section 25 1 a of Indian Arms Act and sentenced him to life imprisonment and one years  rigorous imprisonment respectively
On appeal the High Court reversed the judgment of the Sessions Judge
The High Court observed that if PW 7 had given the telephonic message as stated by DW 1 he would have mentioned the name of the assailant because he was a full fledged eye witness but since his name had not been mentioned it was the strongest Possible circumstance to discredit the prosecution case
Hence this appeal
Allowing the appeal  HELD Normally this Court does not interfere against the judgment of 2 the High Court purely on appreciation of evidence
But this Court would interfere with the decision of the High Court if there appear to be very special circumstances which have been either overlooked or not considered by the High Court or the High Court does not appear to have examined the intrinsic merits of the evidence of the witnesses but has proceeded to acquit the accused on general grounds which are wholly untenable
5B C A cryptic information on telephone has been held by this Court to be of no value at all
The mere fact that the information was the first in point of time does not by itself clothe it with the character of first information report
Tapinder Singh vs State of Punjab   referred to In the instant case the telephonic message was an extremely cryptic one and could not be regarded as a FIR in any sense of the term
The High Court has applied two different standards to assess the evidence of the prosecution and that of the defence
While the High Court accepts the uncorroborated evidence of DW 1 who is as much interested in the dispute as the deceased if not more being Vice President of the Union and also in possession of the brief case of the respondent yet it disbelieves the evidence of PWs 5 and 7 mainly on the ground that they were highly interested
7H 8A B The High Court completely lost sight of two important facts 1 that PWs
5 and 7 were high officers of the company and were not likely to depose falsely on a matter like this and 2 that r
W 6 who was the standing counsel of the company and other labour cases for more than 3 decades fully corroborates the evidence of PWs 5 and 7
We have examined the evidence of PWs 5 and 7 with very great care and caution but we are unable to find any discrepancy or defect in their evidence so as to lead any court to reject the same
8E F The finding of the High Court that it is difficult to believe that after the respondent threw the pistol he continued to remain at the spot and did not make any attempt to escape is also most unrealistic
There is clear evidence of PWs 5 6 and 7 that after the respondent threw down the pistol he was surrounded by the three witnesses so that he could not escape
The High Court has failed to consider this important aspect of the matter
Moreover if a person commits a cold blooded murder in the premises of a court which is bound to be full of other litigants also he cannot think of escaping and is bound to be caught by some one or the other
9A C Relying on the evidence of DW 1 the conclusion reached by the High Court that it is extremely doubtful that the witnesses could see the incident from inside the court room as there was no door or window through which 3 the incident could be seen is purely speculative and against the weight of evidence on record
The evidence of DW 1 who was a highly interested witness should not have been acted upon in the peculiar facts and circumstances of this case unless corroborated by independent evidence
9D F G The High Court seems to have completely overlooked the fact that there was no reason for the three eye witnesses one of whom was a standing counsel for about 30 years to have falsely implicated the respondent merely because he was Secretary of the Union
The consistent course of conduct of the respondent speaks volumes against his innocence
He was caught red handed at the spot and was surrounded by the witnesses so that he could not escape and the police arrived within fifteen minutes of the occurrence and took him to the police station
9H 10A