Supreme Court's Division Bench of Justices Pankaj Mithal and S.V.N. Bhatti has passed an order issuing notice on March 7, 2025 in Subhash Mistri vs. The State of Bihar & Ors a petitions for Special Leave to Appeal (Criminal) arising out of impugned final judgment and order passed by Patna High Court.
An appeal was filed in the Patna High Court for setting aside the judgment of acquittal dated December 21, 2023 passed by Additional District & Sessions Judge-1st, Naugachia, Bhagalpur in Sessions case by which the trial court has acquitted Subhash Mistri, Laddu Mistri and Rajesh Mistri, the respondent nos. 2 to 4 of the charges under Sections 307 and 324 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), whereas respondent nos. 2 to 4 have been convicted for the offences punishable under Sections 323, 341, 447/34 IPC.
In Sukanya Devi vs. The State of Bihar & Ors. (2024), the High Court's Division Bench of Justices Rajeev Ranjan Prasad and Ashok Kumar Pandey concluded: "the trial court judgment to the extent acquitting the accused of the offence under Section 307 IPC and respondent no. 2 of the offence under Sections 307 as well as 324 IPC are not sustainable and liable to be interfered with. Respondent No. 2 is also held guilty for the offence under Section 307/34 IPC as well as Section 324 IPC. Respondent Nos. 3 and 4 are further held guilty for the offences under Sections 307/34 IPC. Since they were armed with lathi only, the charge under Section 324 IPC is not made out." The appeal was allowed to a limited extent. The 29-page long judgement dated October 28, 2024 was authored by Justice Rajeev Ranjan Prasad.
In its order dated October 30, 2024, the Division Bench heard Sukanya Devi, the appellant who is a widow on the point of compensation. Her husband was murdered for which she has lodged a case against the respondent nos.2, 3 and 4. She was left in distress without there being any bread earner for the family and presently she is somehow surviving from the earning of her son. It is submitted that the High Court ought to consider awarding suitable amount of compensation to the appellant. The Court observed:"this Court is of the considered opinion that a sentence of 7 years of rigorous imprisonment to respondent nos.2, 3 and 4 shall meet the ends of justice." The Court's order reads:"this Court is of the view that each of the respondents shall pay a sum of Rs.25,000/- each by way of compensation to the appellant within a period of two months from today." It also observed: "For the offence committed under Section 324 IPC, the respondent no.2 shall undergo a rigorous imprisonment of three years. Both the sentences shall run concurrently....This order shall form part of the judgment delivered by this Court on 28.10.2024."
Earlier, in its order dated August 6, 2024, the High Court's Division Bench had recorded that "paragraph ‘14’ of the judgment and has demonstrated that the learned trial court is not correct in saying that because the injuries were of simple nature and caused by hard and blunt object, therefore, Section 307 of the Indian Penal Code (in short ‘IPC’) shall not be attracted." The counsel had submitted that to attract an offence under Section 307 IPC, the nature of injury whether it is simple or grievous would not be important." It was pointed out that the trial court "while passing order on sentence, left the accused persons by passing an order under the Probation of Offenders Act and simply by admonishing the accused persons but these accused persons later on murdered the injured of this case." The case arose out of PS. Case of 2003 from Gopalpur thana, Bhagalpur. The informant after coming from his field was at his door, when Subhash Mistri (Respondent No. 2) armed with a lathi fixed with farsa came at his door and accused him of abusing. Subhash Mistri assaulted the informant by farsa on his head due to which his head got cut and he fell on the ground. The informant tried to escape by raising alarm but Laddu Mistri, Rajesh Mistri and Santosh Mistri assaulted him by lathi. Reason for the quarrel was that these accused persons had not participated in the Shradh of the informant’s father, so the informant also did not participate in the marriage ceremony of the daughter of Laddu Mistri on June 19, 2003. Due to this reason, all the accused persons assaulted the informant by farsa on his head causing serious injury on his right temporal region. On hearing informant’s hulla, informant’s son Shankar Mistri and other villagers came and rescued him. On the basis of his written application, formal FIR being Gopalpur P.S. Case No. 123 of 2003 was registered under Sections 447, 324, 307, 341/34 IPC against accused persons, namely, (1) Subhash Mistri, (2) Laddu Mistri, (3) Rajesh Mistri and (4) Santosh Mistri.
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