Short notes on Trial Judgment

A criminal trial judgment usually begins with the facts as enunciated in the charge-sheet of the prosecution.

A judge or a Magistrate is not expected to state very briefly about the prosecution case. There is no practice of reproducing the entire charge-sheet though rarely it is adopted by some of the judicial officers but such a practice the High Court may prohibit through the circulars if any found.

It is not out of place to state that charge-sheets by and large contain language which many a time cannot give clear picture from the charge-sheet and it becomes difficult to decipher what are the prosecution allegations and against which specified accused a specific allegation is made.

A judge have to decipher such charge-sheets only by going through the statement of witnesses (Section 161 statements) filed along with the charge-sheets.

That apart, the charge- sheet elaborately mentions the offence by pointing out the motive between the victim and accused, the place and the time of the occurrence of the offence, the names of the eye witnesses of the occurrence, the opinion of the medical witnesses and the sections of the Penal Code and other enactments under which the accused are punishable. The opening statement of the judgment need not contain all these details in verbatim.

An example may be stated here apart from the model judgment that figure in the annexure. Suppose the allegation of the prosecution is this ‘the accused, two in number and the sole deceased [X] belong to village A.

There was a quarrel between the accused on the one side and the deceased and his wife on the other side about a month prior to the date of the commission of the offence.

The quarrel was regarding the first right to draw panchayat water from the panchayat public tap. The deceased and his wife were victorious in the quarrel. The accused went away from the water tap declaring that they would teach proper lesson to the deceased.

On the date of the commission of the offence say 1-1-97 say about 10 a.m while the deceased was returning home along with his wife and son after performing penance at the temple, the accused waylaid and attacked the deceased as the deceased was entering the lane in which the accused and the deceased reside.

Despite the attempt of the deceased to take to heels, both the accused caught hold of them. While the first accused stabbed the deceased in the chest with a knife, the second accused hacked the deceased on the neck of the deceased with an axe.

The wife of the deceased and the son of the deceased raised great alarm where upon the villagers gathered, who overpowered the accused and took them to police outpost located in the village. The son of the deceased presented a written police complaint.

The police immediately sprang into action, and arrested the accused. Police reached the spot where the dead body of the deceased was lying.

Police conducted a panchnama and inquest. Police transmitted the FIR and the inquest report to the Magistrate while the dead body was moved to the government hospital where autopsy was held.

The doctor certified that the death of the deceased was due to fatal injuries on the chest and the neck.

Police latter examined the wife and the son of the deceased as well as the villagers who apprehended the accused and recorded their 161 Cr.P.C. statements. After receiving the wound certificate the charge- sheet was laid by the police.

From this detailed charge-sheet, so far as the preliminary statement in the judgment is concerned, it apparently is suffice to state that the two accused were alleged to have murdered the deceased on 1-1-97 at 10 a.m. in the street corner of the street in which the accused and the deceased reside.

In the specified village and that the two accused were thus alleged to be guilty of murder punishable under Section 302 IPC. It will be strange that so brief a statement regarding the prosecution case as set out by the judge in the judgment while a detailed description resulting in the commission of the offence is narrated in the charge-sheet.

It will not help to give such a very brief and concise statement as the opening portion of the judgment even if there is ample place for the judge to state in detail the evidence of the prosecution, oral and documentary and to analyse and assess the evidentiary value of these factors, for the rule is the prosecution story in detail helps in assessing the evidence so tendered and to enlighten the facts emerging either in consonance or contradictory to the charge-sheet. Therefore a brief but aptly worded preface is found in all judgments.

After the opening statement of the prosecution case, the judge states the charges levelled against the accused based on the allegations. Inorder to frame charges, barring for summary and summons procedure, other procedures of the Code provide that the judge should hear the prosecution and the defence counsel on the question of charge and shall frame charges thereafter.

The judgment however, need not specifically contain a sentence to the effect that the judge had heard the prosecution and the defence and framed charges thereafter since it is sine qua non for the judge to hear them before framing charges. However, many judgments contain sentences regarding the hearing of the prosecution and the defence before framing charges.

In narrating charges, the entire charge on each count need not be reproduced in the judgment. It is sufficient if the judgment indicates the sections under which each of the accused is charged. If one or more accused are charged for the same offence on more than one count, it would suffice if the judgment states that the accused are charged under the specified section or sections on so many counts.

For instance, if two accused out of seven accused are charged for murdering two persons, it is sufficient to state that the two accused are charged under Section 302 IPC on two counts; and the other five of the offence of abetting and if discharged, no charge can be framed nor necessitate. Hence charge will be to the extent of Accused who are thus to face trial.

If more accused than one are charged for a single offence, usually a single charge is framed and read out against all those accused. In such a case, if the judgment contains words to the effect that the specified accused are charged under the specified section.

After all, the purpose of narrating charges in the judgment is to merely indicate the accusations that are made against the accused and the allegations for which the accused stand trial.

The purport of charges is to inform the accused in clear and unambiguous words as to what are the accusations against the accused and in what context the accusations are made.

Therefore, charges are expected to state in detail as to the date of the offence, time of the offence, place of the offence, the manner in which the offence has been committed, the persons against whom the offence has been committed/ the property against which the offence has been perpetrated. This detail is not referred while referring charge in the judgment.

Therefore, it is sufficient as to narrate briefly, the charges against the accused in the judgment.