SASI Vs STATE OF KERALA
Bench: H.L. GOKHALE,RANJAN GOGOI
Case number: Crl.A. No.-000611-000611 / 2013
Diary number: 27357 / 2012
Advocates: SENTHIL JAGADEESAN Vs
JOGY SCARIA
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IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA
CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION
CRIMINAL APPEAL NO. 611 OF 2013 (Arising out of SLP(Crl.) No.9029/2012)
SASI Appellant(s)
:VERSUS:
STATE OF KERALA Respondent(s)
O R D E R
1. Leave granted.
2. Heard Mr. Raghenth Basant, learned counsel in
support of this appeal and Mr. Jogy Scaria, learned
counsel appearing for the State of Kerala.
3. The appellant has been convicted under
Section 27(1)(e)(iii) & (iv) of the Kerala Forest
Act and sentenced to undergo simple imprisonment for
one year and to pay a fine of Rs.1,000/-.
4. The case of the prosecution is that the
appellant, along with three others, was involved in
cutting and removing logs of wood from the concerned
forest. All of them were charged for the same
offence for having indulged in cutting and removing
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the logs of wood from the forest at the same time.
It so happened that the other three accused were
proceeded for trial earlier. The appellant was not
available to law at that time.
5. All of the three other accused were convicted
by the Trial Court but Accused Nos.3 and 4 were
acquitted by the First Appellate Court by its
judgment and order dated 31.12.2005. The conviction
and sentence of the third accused i.e. Accused No.1
was set aside and he was acquitted by the First
Appellate Court by its judgment and order dated
24.6.2006. That was on the basis of failure of the
prosecution witnesses to identify the accused.
Inasmuch as this was a collective offence of
removing the logs of wood from the forest by four
accused persons together, and in view of the fact
that three of them have been acquitted, the 4th
accused could not have been held guilty
independently. Unfortunately, this has so happened
that the Trial Court convicted him by order dated
31st January, 2011 but the fact that other three
accused persons were acquitted earlier, was not
brought to the notice of the Trial Court nor the
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same was brought to the notice of the Fist Appellate
Court which has confirmed the conviction of the 4th
accused i.e. the appellant herein, by judgment and
order dated 30.11.2011 rendered in Criminal Appeal
No.48 of 2011 and the High Court in Criminal
Revision Petition No.542 of 2012.
6. Having considered these facts, in our view,
the appellant could not have been convicted alone
for the particular incident. The appeal, therefore,
deserves to be allowed. Accordingly, the judgment &
order dated 31.01.2011 rendered by the Judicial
Magistrate, 1st Class, Pathanamthitta in CC
NO.299/2006 as affirmed by the Additional District &
Sessions Judge by his judgment & order dated
30.11.2011 in Criminal Appeal No.48/2011 and the
High Court of Kerala's judgment in Criminal Revision
Petition No.542 of 2012 are hereby set aside and the
appeal is allowed.
.........................J (H.L. GOKHALE)
.........................J (RANJAN GOGOI)
New Delhi; April 18, 2013.