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   REPORTABLE

                   IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA       CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION

   CRIMINAL APPEAL NO.1584 OF  2012       (@ SPECIAL LEAVE PETITION(CRL.)NO. 3583 OF 2012)

IQBAL ABDUL SAMIYA MALEK   ....APPELLANT(S)

VERSUS

STATE OF GUJARAT          ....RESPONDENT(S)

WITH

 CRIMINAL     APPEAL     NO.1585     OF     2012    (@ SPECIAL LEAVE PETITION (CRL.) NO. 6260 OF 2012)

HENNO @ ANWARALI AMIR MALEQ & ORS. ...APPELLANT(S)

VERSUS

STATE OF GUJARAT ...RESPONDENT(S)

   O     R     D     E     R   

Heard both sides.

Leave granted.

It is the grievance of the appellants/accused  that  

when they filed regular appeal before the High Court  

challenging the conviction under Section 302 IPC and sentence  

of life imprisonment, the High Court without going into all  

the materials including oral and documentary evidence  

disposed of their appeal affirming the judgment of the Trial  

Court.  

In view of the above contention, we have gone  

through the impugned judgment of the High Court. As rightly  

pointed out by the learned counsel appearing on behalf of the  

appellants, after narrating  the case of the prosecution  and  

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the defence as well as the order of the Sessions Judge  

convicting the appellants, without adverting to all the  

materials, the High Court has  merely disposed of the appeal.  

The procedure followed by the High Court in a matter of this  

nature is  not acceptable.  Elaborate  procedures  have  been  

prescribed under Section 386 of Crl.P.C. for disposal of the  

appeal by the Appellate Court.

It is the duty of an Appellate Court to look into  

the evidence adduced in the case arrive at an independent  

conclusion as to whether the said evidence can be relied upon  

or not and even it can be relied upon then whether the  

prosecution can be said to have proved beyond reasonable  

doubt on the said evidence. The credibility of a witness has  

to be adjudged by Appellate Court in drawing inference from  

proved and admitted facts. Further appeal cannot be disposed  

of without examining records/merits (Vide     Padam     Singh     Vs.    

State     of     U.P.,     AIR     2000     SC     361     and     Bani     Singh     &     Others     Vs.    

State     of     U.P.     1996     (4)     SCC,     720  .  The said recourse has not  

been followed by the High Court.

In view of the same, without expressing anything on  

the merits of the claim of either party, we set aside the  

impugned judgment of the High Court and remit it to the High  

Court. We request the High Court to restore the appeal on its  

file and dispose of the same as early as possible preferably  

within a period of six months.

Learned counsel for the appellants has brought to  

our attention to the fact that the appellants are in jail for  

a period of more than 11 years and seek for an order of bail  

from this Court.Since we are now remitting the matters to the

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High Court, the appellants are free to make such claim before  

the High Court.  

With the above observation, the appeals are disposed  

of.

..................J. [P. SATHASIVAM]

NEW DELHI ..................J. 1ST OCTOBER, 2012 [RANJAN GOGOI]