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TMI Blog1987 (11) TMI 376X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... re not known. His mother Mukhtiar Kaur (P.W. 19) reported this fact and expressed her apprehensions in the matter in her complaint to the Superintendent of Police. Appellant was arrested on 8.5.1975. Nand Singh and Ram Sarup were also arrested on 8.5. 1975. Ram Sarup became an approver. Appellant s defence was one of total denial. 3. The judgment of the High Court under appeal is common to Criminal Appeal No. 676 of 1976 preferred by Nand Singh who was convicted under Sections 302, 364, 201 and 120-B of I.P.C. and also sentenced to imprisonment for life. 4. Appellant s husband, Pritam Singh for whose murder appellant and the said Nand Singh had been arraigned, was, at the relevant time, a police-constable at the Police Station West, Sector-11 Chandigarh. Nand Singh was another constable at the same Police Station. Nand Singh s brother Bhag Singh and Pritam Singh were neighbours, residing in adjacent Government-quarters in Sector 20-A, Chandigarh. Ram Sarup, who later turned approver, was another policeconstable on Guard duty at the Punjab Raj Bhavan, Chandigarh. 5. The married life of Appellant and Pritam Singh, according to the prosecution, lacked connubial felicity and w ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... rchased Ghotna on the pretext that his sister-in-law had asked for the purchase of one. Thereafter, all the three agreed to go back Chandigarh on foot which took them along a dandi passing by the side of the Pinjore gardens. They reached the railway line near Surajpur Cement Factory and took the footpath towards Chandigarh. When the three reached a distance of almost 2 miles from Surajpur, Nand Singh suggested that they should climb up a hill on the way side to enjoy a panoramic view of Chandigarh. Accordingly, all the three started climbing. Ram Sarup (P.W. 2) was ahead; Pritam Singh was in the middle with Nand Singh following behind him. Nand Singh is stated to have suddenly administered 2-3 Ghotna blows on the head of the unsuspecting Pritam Singh and told Ram Sarup (P.W. 2) to pin the tottering Pritam Singh down. Ram Sarup pulled Pritam Singh down whereupon Nand Singh gave 8 to 10 more blows with the Ghotna on the person of Pritam Singh. Then Nand Singh threw away the Ghotna and the two, namely, i.e. Nand Singh and Ram Sarup, hastened towards Chandigarh. However, after the two had gone 2 furlongs or so, Nand Singh urged Ram Sarup (P.W. 2) that they both go back to find out ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... imony as corroborated by other evidence, held both Nand Singh , and the appellant guilty of the offences they were charged with and sentenced them to imprisonment for life. The High Court has dismissed their appeals and has confirmed the convictions and the sentences. 9. Shri A.S. Sohai, Learned counsel appearing in support of the appeal urged that the evidence of the Approver in so far as the complicity of appellant is concerned, lacked corroboration on materials particulars and that no conviction could be sustained on such uncorroborated accomplice s testimony. 10. The development of the law touching the competency and credit of an accomplice as witness against others is not without its interesting antecedents. Historically, in the background of the political trials since the time of Henry VIII where King s Evidence was the main dependence of the crown in its prosecutions, the question of the very admissibility of the evidence of the accomplice loomed large. In the 17th and the 18th centuries, it was ruled repeatedly by the English courts that an accomplice was a competent witness. His credit or the sufficiency of his evidence as a quantitative conception, however, r ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... s is, at once, unwise and unpractical. The aspect as to the extent and content of independent corroboration is, again, an interesting area of study. One view was that independent evidence tending to verify any part of the testimony of the accomplice should suffice. The other view required that the corroborative evidence should not only show that part of the accomplice testimony is true; but should go further and also implicate the other accused. In R. v. Bhaskerville, the Court of Criminal appeal in England favoured and adopted the second view. Thirtyfive years ago, Bose J referring with approval to the principles in Bhaskerville said that this branch of the law in India is the same as in England and that the lucid exposition of it given by Lord Reading, cannot be bettered. The felicitous formulation of the law on the matter by that great master of phrase, Bose J, which has now become classical, may be re-called: ... But to this extent the rules are clear: (21) First, it is not necessary that there should be independent confirmation of every material circumstance in the sense that the independent evidence in the case, apart from the testimony of the complainant of the ac ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... mplicates him, that is which tends to confirm in some material particular not only that the offence was committed, but also that the defendant committed it . 12. As to independent nature of the corroboration learned Chief Justice observed in Bhaskerville case: .. Again, the corroboration must be by some evidence other than that of an accomplice, and therefore one accomplice s evidence is not corroboration of the testimony of another accomplice: Rex v. Noakes .. As to the extent of the requisite reassurance by way of corroboration, learned Chief Justice said: .. .It is sufficient if there is confirmation as to a material circumstance of the crime and of the identity of the accused in relation to the crime. Parke B gave this opinion as a result of twentyfive years practice; it was accepted by the other judges; and has been much relied upon in later cases .. .... Indeed, if it were required that the accomplice A should be confirmed in every detail of the crime, his evidence would not be essential to the case it would be merely confirmatory of other and independent testimony .... (page 664 in Rex v. Bhaskerville) In Halsbury s Laws of England-IV Edn.-Vol. ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... pressing any support for the proposition of counsel for the appellant. The position of law in Rex v. Bhaskerville was, thus restored. 13. However, a marked tendency in England towards arresting the formalism in regard to the specific words to be used to caution the jury against the danger of accepting the testimony of the uncorroborated accomplice is now discernible. In R. v. Spencer [ 1986 2 All ER 928] the grievance of the convicted person was that the trial judge, in cautioning the jury, failed to use the word dangerous in describing the risks of injustice involved in convicting a person on the testimony of an uncorroborated accomplice. The Court of appeal and the House of Lords declined to set aside-the verdict and said that the summing up did not involve some legalistic ritual to be incanted in the summing-up. However, in regard to the quality and extent of corroboration, in R. v. Donat, [19861 2 Cr. App. R. 1973, it was reiterated that to count as corroboration, it is not enough that a piece of evidence merely supports the accomplice s credibility, however, convincingly and independently; but it must go a little further and implicate the accused. (See All England ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... rom a cruel husband by doing away with him; that she agreed that she would, thereafter, live with Nand Singh as his wife and that after coming to know of Pritam Singh s death she deliberately missed her mother-in-law, Mukhtiar Kaur (P.W. 19) into making a report to the police containing false and misleading information in an attempt to draw a red-herring across the trial. The evidence of P.Ws. 17 18 on the first two points has been discarded by the sessions court. It is not also suggested that after the murder of Pritam Singh, appellant began to live with Nand Singh. There was a considerable lapse of time between the death of Pritam Singh and their arrest. There is no evidence to show that, in the interregnum, there was any liasion between the two. 16. There is yet another impediment in accepting the evidence on an important area of the alleged conspiracy. The incriminating circumstances in the evidence of the approver appearing against the appellant had had to be put to the appellant in her examination under Section 313 Cr. P.C. The incriminating testimony of the approver pertaining to the case that on 13.11.1973 appellant wept and implored Nand Singh and Ram Sarup to do a ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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