The Supreme Court of India has dismissed a criminal appeal filed by the erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir, affirming the acquittal of Gulzar Ahmad Bhat and three others in a 2013 alleged rape case. The court upheld the concurrent verdicts of the Sessions Court and the Jammu and Kashmir High Court, which had cleared the accused due to insufficient evidence.
The State had challenged the acquittal, arguing that prosecution witnesses had provided consistent testimony establishing the culpability of the accused. However, the respondents’ counsel maintained that there were no inconsistencies in the lower court judgments that could justify the intervention of the Supreme Court. The Bench, comprising Justice BV Nagarathna and Justice Satish Chandra Sharma, observed that the appellant-State had failed to point out categorically any contradictions or lapses in the evidence or the judgments passed by the courts below.
The Supreme Court reiterated the principle that appellate courts must tread cautiously while disturbing acquittals unless the conclusions reached are palpably unreasonable or perverse. Relying on prior precedents, the court held that the accused enjoy a “double presumption of innocence” and that the prosecution had failed to highlight any material infirmities or legal errors in the concurrent findings of fact. The judgment dismissing the appeal underscores the foundational principle of Indian criminal jurisprudence that an accused person is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
Source : Kashmir Life
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