The Supreme Court recently in a judgement held that courts cannot be biased between the persons who are accused of the same offence and the evidences against them are also same.
The case was about the unlawful assembly of 13 people which were charged for the Dacoity , murder etc.
In this case some of the accused were convicted, some were acquitted and some accused’s SLP was rejected.
The court took suo moto cognizance while granting acquittal to all the accused.
The two-Judge Bench comprising Justice Abhay S. Oka and Justice Sanjay Karol noted, “When there is similar or identical evidence of eyewitnesses against two accused by ascribing them the same or similar role, the Court cannot convict one accused and acquit the other. In such a case, the cases of both the accused will be governed by the principle of parity. This principle means that the Criminal Court should decide like cases alike, and in such cases, the Court cannot make a distinction between the two accused, which will amount to discrimination.”
The 4 accused had same evidence against them among whom one’s appeal was discarded by Supreme Court while considering other appeals, the other two did not filed any case so the court took suo moto and acquitted all 4 of them even if they did not approached the court.
Advocates Fauzia Shakil, Ujjwal Singh, and Agastya Sen represented the appellant.
Advocates Ruchi Kohli, Swati Ghildiyal, Devyani Bhatt, and Srishti Mishra appeared for the Gujarat government.
Case : Javed Shaukat Ali Qureshi v.State Of Gujrat CRIMINAL APPEAL NO. 1012 OF 2022.
WRITTEN BY : VIDHI MAHAJAN , A BALLB STUDENT FROM GURU NANAK DEV UNIVERSITY, AMRITSAR AND A LEGAL INTERN UNDER LEGAL VIDHIYA.
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