Page 1

1

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

Page 2

2

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

Page 3

3

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.