ON Criminal Appeal Nos
335 36 and 523 of 1982
From the Judgment and order dated the 31st of March 1982 of the High Court of Punjab and Haryana in Criminal Revision No 977 of 1980
RL Kohli M K Dua SK Mehta PN Puri and RC Kohli for the appellants
SK Bagga for the respondents
The Judgment of the Court was delivered by FAZAL ALI J
In these appeals by special leave four persons namely Mohinder Singh Gurcharan Singh Bharpur Singh and Jagvinder Singh were tried by the Sessions Judge for offences under Sections 30234 and 30734 IPC and also under Section 27 of the 
After recording the entire evidence the trial court convicted Mohinder Singh under section 304 IPC sentenced him to 7 years rigorous imprisonment
The other three accused were acquitted by the Sessions Judge
Mohinder Singh filed an appeal before the High Court of Punjab and Haryana against his conviction and sentence
The State Government also filed an appeal against Gurcharan Singh Bharpur Singh and Jagvinder Singh so far 490 as their acquittal was concerned and against Mohinder Singh so far as his acquittal under Section 302 IPC was concerned
The High Court without making any real attempt to analyse and appreciate the evidence led in support of the prosecution came to a general conclusion that the judgment of the learned Sessions Judge was not in accordance with law and that he had not dealt with some points or omitted to consider some points and remanded the case back to the trial court for writing a fresh and proper judgment
So far as the acquitted accused were concerned although the appeal was filed by the Public Prosecutor as directed by the State Government yet the High court on its own or perhaps at the instance of the acquitted accused on a petition filed by them held that there was no proper direction by the Government for filing the appeal except in case of Mohinder Singh
There was undoubtedly a direction to the Public Prosecutor to file appeal against acquitted accused as indicated above
The High Court however at the instance of the acquitted accused tried to re open the matter in order to find out the manner and various stages through which the sanctioned to file an appeal was chanalised
With due respects to the learned judges we feel that this was not at all proper for the High Court to do
Whenever a Government seeks opinion it consults various agencies namely the Advocate General Public Prosecutor Legal Remembrancer and others and thereafter the order is passed by the Government through the Secretary incharge
In the instant case it was not disputed that the Public Prosecutor was directed by the Under Secretary to the Government in charge to file appeal against all the appellants
The High Court however seems to have gone deeper into the matter by making a roving inquiry into what had happened when the matter was under consideration of the Government and how things shaped and held after making this roving inquiry that the authority given to the Public Prosecutor was only in respect of Mohinder Singh and not others
Therefore the High Court was of the opinion that direction to file appeal against acquitted accused Gurcharan Singh Bharpur Singh and Jagvinder Singh was non est and hence appeal filed by the State was not properly presented so far as they are concerned
It appears that a clear direction has been given to the Public Prosecutor to file appeal against all the four accused three of them against acquittal and as regards Mohinder Singh against his acquittal under Section 302 IPC
Having gone through the entire record we are unable to agree with the High Court that there was any interpolation with 491 respect to acquitted accused
It may be that various agencies may A have expressed different views but by and large the final decision taken by the Under Secretary prevailed as a result of which the Public Prosecutor was authorised to file an appeal before the High Court against all the acquitted accused
In such a situation therefore the High Court erred in holding that the appeal presented by the State was not properly presented as against the said three accused and it should have heard the appeal on merits alongwith the care of Mohinder Singh
As we intend to send the case back to the High Court for fresh decision in accordance with law after taking into consideration the fact that the appeal by the State was properly constituted it is not necessary for us to give further details
We might however mention that the High Court instead of analysing and appreciating evidence remanded the case back to the Sessions Judge for writing a proper judgment
In the first place assuming that the High Court was right in thinking that the judgment suffered from tome infirmities and there were certain facts which were not taken into consideration they would not be grounds remanding the case to the Sessions Court to write a proper judgment
The High Court itself was a final court of facts and it was its duty to satisfy itself regarding the correctness and acceptability of the evidence
Thus it was entirely open to the High Court to reappraise the evidence once again to consider the facts which may have been overlooked by the Sessions Judge and it should have decided the appeal itself instead of remanding the case to the Sessions Court
It being a moot point we refrain from expressing any opinion on the question whether the first appellate court of fact can in a criminal case send the case back to the Sessions Court for writing a fresh judgment
The proper order in such a case should be either to decide the case itself or to send it for re trial
The question of re trial does not arise in the view we have taken in this case
We therefore allow one Appeal 523 of 1982 and the other appeals in part set aside the order of the High Court and direct to re hear the appeals on merits according to law
We think it proper and expedient in the interest of justice that this appeal should be heard by a different bench of the High Court
NVK Appeals allowed


Summary:
Appeal against acquittal by state Government to High Court Powers of appellate court What are High court final court of facts Correctness and acceptability of evidence Duty To be satisfied Open to re appraise evidence and decide appeal or order re trial Not proper to remand case to trial court for writing a fresh judgment Proper direction by Government to file appeal Existence of High Court whether competent to go through the sanction file
The four appellants in the appeal were tried by the Sessions Judge for offenses under Sections 30234 IPC and also under Section 27 of the 
The court convicted the first appellant under Section 304 Part I IPC and sentenced him to 7 years rigorous imprisonment and acquitted the others
The first appellant filed and appeal before the High Court and the State Government filed appeals against the acquittal of the other appellants and also of the first appellant s under Section 302 I P C
The High Court came to a general conclusion that the judgment of the Sessions Judge was not in accordance with law and had not dealt with some of the Points raised in the appeals and remanded the case back to the trial court for writing a fresh and proper judgment
As far as the acquitted accused were concerned although the appeals were filed by the Public Prosecutor as directed by the State Government the High Court hold that there was no proper direction by the Government for filing the appeals except in the case of the first appellant 
Allowing the Appeals to this Court  HELD Assuming that the High Court was right in thinking the judgment suffered from some infirmity and there were certain facts which were not taken into consideration they would not be grounds for remanding the case to the Sessions Court to writ a proper judgment
The High Court itself was a final court of facts and it was its duty to satisfy itself regarding the correctness and acceptability of the evidence
It was entirely open to the High Court to re appraise the evidence once again to consider the facts overlooked by the Sessions Judge and to have decided the appeal 489 itself instead of remanding the case to the Sessions Court
The proper order in such a case should be either to decide the case itself or to send it for re trial
The question of re trial does not arise in the instant case
The order of the High Court is set aside and the High Court is directed to re hear two appeals on merits according to law
491D F 2
Whenever the Government seeks opinion it consults various agencies namely the Advocate General Public Prosecutor Legal Remembrancer and others and thereafter the order is passed by the Government through the Secretary incharge
490E In the instance cases it is not in dispute that the Public Prosecutor was directed by the Under Secretary to the Government in charge to file appeals against all the appellants
A clear direction had been given to the Public Prosecutor to file appeals against all the four accused and as regards the first appellant against his acquittal under Section 302 IPC
The High Court at the instance of the acquitted accused tried to re open the matter in order to find out the manner and various stages through which the sanction to file an appeal was chanalised
This was not at all proper for the High Court to do
490E G F