N Criminal Appeal No 163 of 1979
Appeal by Special Leave from the Judgment and Order dated 23 8 1978 of the Allahabad High Court in Criminal Appeal No 126478 and Murder Reference No 978
R C Kohli for the Appellant
O P Rana and K K Bhatta for the Respondent
Yogeshwar Prasad and Mrs Rani Chhabra for the Complainant
773 The Judgment of the Court was delivered by CHANDRACHUD CJ
A college going boy called Vijay Bhan Kishore was shot dead on the morning of November 2 1976 near the Hathi Park Dayanand Marg Allahabad
The appellant was convicted for that offence under section 302 of the Penal Code by the learned Third Additional Sessions Judge Allahabad and was sentenced to death
The order of conviction and sentence having been confirmed by the High Court of Allahabad by its judgment dated August 23 1979 the appellant has filed this appeal by Special Leave
Vijay Bhan Kishore alias Pappoo was the son of an Advocate called Brij Bhan Kishore who died in about 1967 leaving behind a widow three daughters and Pappoo
The youngest of the three daughters was married while the two elder were working as school teachers
Out of those two Ranjana Kishore was a teacher in the St Anthony s Convent
The appellant Dudh Nath Pandey who was a motor car driver by occupation used to live as a tenant in an out house of a sprawling bungalow belonging to the family of the deceased situated at 17 Stanley Road Allahabad
The appellant developed a fancy for Ranjana who was about 20 years of age when he came to live in the out house
The overtures made by the appellant to Ranjana created resentment in her family and its only surviving male member her brother Pappoo took upon himself the task of preventing the appellant from pursuing his sister
As a first step the appellant was turned out of the out house
Soon thereafter he filed an application before the City Magistrate Allahabad asking for the custody of Ranjana alleging that she was his lawfully wedded wife
That application was dismissed by the learned Magistrate after recording the statement of Ranjana in which she denied that she was married to the appellant
The appellant thereafter filed a habeas corpus petition in the Allahabad High Court alleging that Ranjana was detained unlawfully by the members of her family including her uncle K P Saxena and asking that she be released from their custody
Ranjana denied in that proceedings too that she was married to the appellant or that she was unlawfully detained by the members of her family
The habeas corpus petition was dismissed by the High Court on November 8 1973
On August 1 1975 the Principal of St Anthony s Convent made a complaint to the police that the appellant had made indecent overtures to Ranjana
The appellant was arrested as a result of that complaint
774 On November 1 1976 Ranjana was having an evening stroll with her brother the deceased Pappoo in the compound of their house
The appellant came there in a rickshaw abused Pappoo and is alleged to have threatened to kill him if he dared oppose his the appellant s marriage with Ranjana
As a result of these various incidents and the family s growing concern for Ranjana s safety Pappoo used to escort Ranjana every morning to the school where she was teaching
On the following day ie on November 2 1976 Pappoo took Ranjana to her school on his scooter as usual
The classes used to begin at 9 30 AM but Ranjana used to go to the school 30 to 40 minutes before time for correcting the students  home work
After dropping Ranjana at the school Pappoo started back for home on his scooter
While he was passing by the Children s Park known as the Hathi Park the appellant is alleged to have fired at him with a country made pistol
Pappoo fell down from his scooter and died almost instantaneously
The occurrence is said to have been witnessed by Harish Chandra P W 3 a domestic servant of the family of the deceased and by Harish Chandra s friend Ashok Kumar P W 1
Harish Chandra used to live in the out house of the deceased s bungalow at 17 Stanley Road while Ashok Kumar who generally lived at Kanpur is said to have come to Allahabad the previous day in search of employment
Almost immediately after Pappoo and Ranjana left the house on the scooter Ashok Kumar and Harish Chandra too left the house as the former wanted to see the Hathi Park
They were near about the gate of the park which is a few steps away from the scene of occurrence when the deceased Pappoo was passing along on his scooter after dropping Ranjana at the St Anthony s Convent
Ashok Kumar and Harish Chandra are alleged to have seen the appellant who was standing near the northern boundary of the park firing a shot at Pappoo
The appellant re loaded his pistol and is said to have run away to wards the south east
Ashok Kumar and Harish Chandra rushed to St Anthony s Convent in a rickshaw and informed Ranjana Kishore about the murder of her brother
Ranjana went to the scene of incident along with them and on finding that her brother was dead she went straight to the Cannington police station which is about 2 kms
She wrote out the report exhibit Ka 1 in her own hand and submitted it to the officer in charge of the police station at 9 45 AM
In the meantime information of the murder had reached the police station of Colonelganj within the jurisdiction  of which the murder had taken place
775 The police deserve a word of appreciation because they did not as usual enter into a squabble as to in whose jurisdiction  the offence had taken place
H R L Srivastava the sub inspector attached to Colonelganj police station went within minutes to the scene of offence and believing that Pappoo was alive sent him in a jeep to the Tej Bahadur Sapru hospital
A little later P section I Chandrapal Singh of the Cannington police station arrived on the scene and started the investigation
He took charge of an empty cartridge shell and the bloodstained earth and later he sent the dead body of Pappoo for postmortem examination
P section I Srivastava arrested the appellant at about 2 30 PM while he was standing near a pan shop in front of the Indian Telephone Industries Naini where he used to work
The appellant was taken to the scene of offence where he made a certain statement and took out a loaded pistol from a heap of rubbish lying on the Kamla Nehru Road being the direction in which he had run away after killing Pappoo
The Ballistic expert Budul Rai opined that the empty cartridge shell which was lying at the scene of offence was fired from that particular pistol
Dr G section Saxena who conducted the postmortem examination found a single gun shot injury on the left side of the chest of the deceased below the armpit
The injury had caused seven pellet wounds each measuring 13 inch in diameter
Seven pellets were recovered from the body
The injury according to Dr Saxena was sufficient in the ordinary course of nature to cause death
The appellant stated in his defence that he used to live in the house of the deceased as the guest of the family and not as a tenant and that Ranjana got intimate with him during that period
He left the house because she told him that there was danger to his life
The murder of Pappoo according to the appellant was engineered by Dr K P Saxena the maternal uncle of the deceased
The appellant denied his hand in the murder saying that he had no reason to do so since the deceased s mother and the other members of the family desired that he should marry Ranjana
The appellant examined five witnesses to prove his alibi his contention being that he was on duty at the Indian Telephone Industries right from 8 30 AM on the date of the incident and that he was arrested from inside the factory at about 2 30 PM while on duty
776 The learned Additional Sessions Judge Allahabad examined the Deputy Superintendent of Police R P Bhanu and the General Manager of the Indian Telephone Industries as Court witnesses
The prosecution examined 13 witnesses in support of its case that the appellant had committed the murder of Pappoo
Ashok Kumar PW 1 and Harish Chandra PW 3 were examined as eyewitnesses to the incident
Ranjana Kishore PW 2 was examined to prove the motive for the murder as also for showing that the deceased Pappoo had taken her to the school on his scooter and that soon thereafter she was informed by the two eye witnesses of the murder
Ram Kishore PW 4 was examined to prove the arrest of the appellant and the recovery of the loaded pistol
P section I Srivastava PW 9 and PSI Chandrapal Singh PW 10 deposed about the various steps taken during the course of investigation
Dr G section Saxena PW 11 was examined in order to show the nature of the injuries suffered by the deceased while Budul Rai PW 12 stated that the empty cartridge shell which was lying at the scene of offence was fired from the particular pistol which is stated to have been recovered at the instance of the appellant
The other prosecution witnesses are mostly of a formal nature
Were this a case of circumstantial evidence different considerations would have prevailed because the balance of evidence after excluding the testimony of the two eye witnesses is not of the standard required in cases dependent wholly on circumstantial evidence
Evidence of recovery of the pistol at the instance of the appellant cannot by itself prove that he who pointed out the weapon weilded it in offence
The statement accompanying the discovery is woefully vague to identify the authorship of concealment with the result that the pointing out of the weapon may at best prove the appellant s knowledge as to where the weapon was kept
The evidence of the Ballistic expert carries the proof of the charge a significant step ahead but not near enough because at the highest it shows that the shot which killed Pappoo was fired from the pistol which was pointed out by the appellant
The evidence surrounding the discovery of the pistol may not be discarded as wholly untrue but it leaves a few significant questions unanswered and creates a sense of uneasiness in the mind of a Criminal Court the Court of conscience that it has to be How could the appellant have an opportunity to conceal the pistol in broad day light on a public thoroughfare  If he re loaded the pistol as a measure of self protection as suggested by the prosecution why did he get rid of it so quickly by throwing it near the Hathi Park itself  And how come that the police hit upon none better that Ram Kishore PW 4 to witness the discovery of the pistol  Ram Kishore had already 777 deposed in seven different cases in favour of the prosecution and was evidently at the beck and call of the police
But the real hurdle in the way of the appellant is the evidence of the eye witnesses Ashok Kumar PW 1 and Harish Chandra PW 3
Shri R C Kohli who appears for the appellant made a valiant attempt to demolish their evidence but in spite of the counsel s able argument we find it difficult to hold that the eye witnesses have perjured themselves by claiming to be present at the time and place of the occurrence
It is true that Harish Chandra who was working as a domestic servant with the deceased s family should normally have been doing his daily morning chores
Few masters would permit a household servant to go away on a sight seeing spree right in the morning
But there are at least two plausible reasons which lend assurance to the claim that Harish Chandra left the house almost immediately after the deceased Pappoo drove away with his sister Ranjana
Ashok Kumar had come to Allahabad the previous evening and he wanted to go to the Hathi Park where though it is called a children s park adults too find their merriment
There is nothing fundamentally improbable in Ashok Kumar coming to Allahabad in search of employment and equally nothing inherently strange in the two friends going out on a frolic
And though a small consideration it is relevant that the normal morning routine of Harish Chandra was to help in the kitchen but the 2nd November 1976 was an Ekadashi day and therefore there was not much to do for him
The second reason is more weighty and almost clinches the issue
The evidence of Ranjana PW 2 shows beyond the manner of doubt that Harish Chandra and Ashok Kumar broke to her the news of her brother s murder while she was in the school
The events after the murder happened in such quick succession that there was no time for any one to contrive and confabulate
Within ten minutes of the occurrence Ranjana was informed of the incident by the two eyewitnesses and within a few moments thereafter she went to the scene of the tragedy
Her FIR exhibit Ka 1 was recorded at the police station at 9 45 am A fact of preponderating importance is that the story which Ranjana disclosed in the FIR is precisely the same as the witnesses including herself narrated in the Court
The FIR is a brief document of a page and half
But it is remarkable that it mentions 1 that the appellant wanted to marry Ranjana and was harassing her towards that end 2 that there was a quarrel between the appellant and Pappoo the previous evening in which the former gave a threat of life to the latter 3 that Ranjana left for the school on the day of occurrence at 8 45 AM and 4 that soon thereafter Harish 778 Chandra and Ashok Kumar met her at the school and conveyed to her that they had gone to see the Hathi Park when while Pappoo was passing along the road the Appellant fired a shot at him
We consider it beyond the normal range of human propensities that Ranjana could have built up the whole story within three quarters of an hour which intervened between the time that she learnt of her brother s murder and the lodging by her of the FIR She could not have taken the risk of creating a false witness by placing Ashok Kumar who normally resided in Kanpur alongside Harish Chandra
With the death of her brother her own house was left without a male member
At home was an ailing mother and two other sisters more or less of her own age
There was no one to advise her upon the hatching of a conspiracy to involve the appellant and she could not have been in a proper frame of mind to do anything of the kind on her own
Her inexperience of life the promptness with which she gave the FIR and the wealth of details she mentioned therein afford an assurance that the story of the eye witnesses is true in so far as it goes
Shri Kohli s submission that Ranjana s FIR is anti timed and must have been recorded late in the evening leaves us cold
Shri Kohli has pointed a defect here and an improbability there in the evidence of the eye witnesses but it has to be borne in mind that the Trial Court and the High Court have concurrently believed that evidence
We do not suggest that the mere circumstances that two or more courts have taken the same view of facts shuts out all further inquiry into the correctness of that view
For example concurrence is not an insurance against the charge of perversity though a strong case has to be made out in order to support the charge that findings of fact recorded by more than one court are perverse that is to say they are such that no reasonable tribunal could have recorded them
The merit of the normal rule that concurrent findings ought not to be reviewed by this Court consists in the assumption that it is not likely that two or more tribunals would come to the same conclusion unless it is a just and fair conclusion to come to
In the instant case the view of the evidence taken by the Sessions Court and the High Court is at least a reasonable view to take and that is why we are not disposed so to say to re open the whole case on evidence
We have indicated briefly why we consider that the eye witness account accords with the broad probabilities of the case
Counsel for the appellant pressed hard upon us that the defence evidence establishes the alibi of the appellant
We think not
The evidence led by the appellant to show that at the relevant time he was on duty at his usual place of work at Naini has a certain amount 779 of plausibility but that is about all
The High Court and the Sessions Court have pointed out many a reason why that evidence cannot be accepted as true
The appellant s colleagues at the Indian Telephone Industries made a brave bid to save his life by giving evidence suggesting that he was at his desk at or about the time when the murder took place and further that he was arrested from within the factory
We do not want to attribute motives to them merely because they were examined by the defence
Defence witnesses are entitled to equal treatment with those of the prosecution
And Courts ought to overcome their traditional instinctive disbelief in defence witnesses
Quite often they tell lies but so do the prosecution witnesses
Granting that D Ws 1 to 5 are right their evidence particularly in the light of the evidence of the two Court witnesses is insufficient to prove that the appellant could not have been present near the Hathi Park at about 9 00 AM when the murder of Pappoo was committed
The plea of alibi postulates the physical impossibility of the presence of the accused at the scene of offence by reason of his presence at another place
The plea can therefore succeed only if it is shown that the accused was so far away at the relevant time that he could not be present at the place where the crime was committed
The evidence of the defence witnesses accepting it at its face value is consistent with the appellant s presence at the Naini factory at 8 30 AM and at the scene of offence at 900 AM
So short is the distance between the two points
The workers punch their cards when they enter the factory but when they leave the factory they do not have to punch the time of their exit
The appellant in all probability went to the factory at the appointed hour left it immediately and went in search of his prey
He knew when precisely Pappoo would return after dropping Ranjana at the school
The appellant appears to have attempted to go back to his work but that involved the risk of the time of his re entry being punched again
That is how he was arrested at about 2 30 PM while he was loitering near the pan shop in front of the factory
There is no truth in the claim that he was arrested from inside the factory
That settles the issue of guilt
We agree with the view of the High Court and the Sessions Court and uphold the appellant s conviction under section 302 of the Penal Code
The question of sentence has gravely agitated our minds
A young college going boy was murdered because he was trying to wean away his sister from the influence of the appellant who had set his heart upon her
But there are two reasons why we are not disposed to confirm the death sentence
In the first place the appellant was smarting 780 under the insult hurled at him by the deceased Pappoo the previous evening
As stated by Ranjana in the FIR when the appellant proclaimed his determination to marry her Pappoo retorted You are a man of two Paisa s worth
How can you dare to marry my sister  I will break your hands and feet
 A poor motor car driver that the appellant was he must have been offended enormously that his poverty was being put up as the reason why Ranjana would not be allowed to marry him
The dispute thus assumed the proportions of a feud over social status the poor man fretting that the rich man s daughter would not be allowed to marry him for the mere reason that he did not belong to an equal class of society
And it is evident that he believed rightly or wrongly that Ranjana was not unwilling to take him as a husband
It is in the immediate background of the previous evening s incident that the question of sentence has perforce to be considered
That incident cannot certainly be considered as affording sudden provocation to the appellant for the crime committed by him the next morning and therefore it cannot reduce the offence of murder into a lesser offence
But the mental turmoil and the sense of being socially wronged through which the appellant was passing cannot be overlooked while deciding which is the appropriate sentence to pass the rule being that for the offence of murder the normal sentence is the sentence of life imprisonment and not of death
Secondly Harish Chandra and Ashok Kumar do not appear to have revealed the whole truth to the Court
If the appellant had fired a shot at Pappoo while the latter was driving along on his scooter and if Pappoo as is alleged dropped dead his scooter would have dragged him ahead and in that process he would have received some injury
The scooter too would have been damaged howsoever slightly
But it is strange that apart from the gun shot wound Pappoo had no other injury on his person except an abrasion on the left side of the chest which was evidently caused by the gun shot itself
The scooter was not dragged at all except for the mark of pellets
And most importantly the scooter was not lying on the road but was standing
Pappoo seems to have stopped on seeing the appellant and quite clearly there was an exchange of hot words between them which culminated in Pappoo s murder
The death of the brave young lad which has deprived the family of the succour of its only male member is to be deeply lamented
But if witnesses on whose evidence the life of an accused hangs in the balance do not choose to reveal the whole truth the Court while dealing with the question of sentence has to step in interstitially and take into account all reasonable possibilities having regard to the normal and natural course of human affairs
781 Since a part of the crucial event has been screened from the Court s scrutiny and the possibility of an altercation between the appellant and the deceased cannot reasonably be excluded we consider it unsafe to sentence the appellant to the extreme penalty
In the result we confirm the conviction of the appellant under section 302 of the Penal Code but set aside the sentence of death imposed upon him
We sentence the appellant to imprisonment for life
The appeal is accordingly allowed partly
PBR Appeal allowed partly


Summary:
The prosecution alleged that when the appellant a motor car driver who was living as a tenant in the out house of the bungalow belonging to the family of the deceased developed a fancy for the sister of the deceased
His overtures created resentment in the family and the deceased took upon himself the task of preventing the appellant from pursuing his sister
The appellant s effort to take custody of the deceased s sister through legal proceedings had failed sometime later on a complaint to the police that the appellant had been making indecent overtures towards her he was arrested
A day before the day of the occurrence the appellant was alleged to have threatened to kill the deceased if he opposed his appellant s marriage with his sister
It was further alleged that while the deceased was returning home on his scooter after leaving his sister in the school where she was working as a teacher the appellant fired a shot at him with a pistol at which the deceased fell dead instantaneously
He was convicted under section 302 IPC and sentenced to death
The order of conviction and sentence was confirmed by the High Court
On the question of sentence  HELD 1
The Sessions Court and the High Court were right in convicting the appellant under section 302 IPC 779 G a The mere circumstance that two or more courts have taken the same view of facts does not shut out all further inquiry into the correctness of that view
Concurrence is not an insurance against the charge of perversity though a strong case has to be made out in order to support the charge that findings of fact recorded by more than one court are perverse
The merit of the normal rule that concurrent findings ought not to be reviewed by this Court consists in the assumption that it is not likely that two or more tribunals would come to the same conclusion unless it is a just and fair conclusion to come to
718 E G 2
While dealing with the question of sentence for the offence of murder the normal sentence is the sentence of life imprisonment and not of death
If in a same conclusion unless it is a just and fair conclusion to come to
778 E G 772 balances do not choose to reveal the whole truth the Court while dealing with the question of sentence has to step in interstitially and take into account all reasonable possibilities having regard to the normal and natural course of human affairs
In the instant case it would be unsafe on the evidence on record to sentence the appellant to the extreme penalty of death
780 H The appellant a poor motor car driver must have been offended enormously when the deceased abused him that he was a man of two paise worth and that if he attempted to marry his sister he would break his hands and feet and that his poverty was being put up as the reason why his sister would not be allowed to marry him
The dispute thus assumed proportions of a fued over social status
The poor man was fretting that the rich man s daughter would not be allowed to marry him for the mere reason that he did not belong to an equal class of society
The appellant rightly or wrongly believed that the girl was not unwilling to marry him
The incident of the previous evening could not be considered as affording sudden provocation to the appellant for the crime committed by him on the following morning
It cannot reduce the offence of murder into a lesser offence but the mental turmoil and the sense of being socially wronged through which the appellant was passing could not be overlooked while deciding the appropriate sentence
780 B D Secondly the fact that apart from the gun shot wound the deceased had no other injury on his person except an abrasion on the left side of the chest evidently caused by the gun shot itself coupled with the fact that the scooter was found standing on the road showed that the deceased stopped on seeing the appellant and that there was an exchange of hot words between them culminating in the murder
But since in the present case a part of the crucial evidence had been screened from the Court s scrutiny the possibility of an altercation between the appellant and the deceased cannot reasonably be excluded
780 F H 3 The evidence of the defence witnesses has failed to establish the alibi of the appellants
The plea of alibi postulates the physical impossibility of the presence of the accused at the scene of offence by reason of his presence at another place
The plea therefore succeeds only if it is shown that the accused was so far away at the relevant time that he could not be present at the place where the crime was committed
But in the present case the evidence of the defence witnesses accepting it at its face value is consistent with the appellant s presence at the factory at the appointed hour and half an hour later at the scene of offence
So short is the distance between the two points
778 H 779 D