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Citation Codes
Equivalent Citations
citation codes
Case Number
Judges
Acts
  • Section 5, Subsection 2 of the 1983 Income Tax Act
  • The new Criminal Procedure Code, 1973
  • Section 147, Section 426/149 and Section 506 of the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973
  • Section [not specified], Subsection [not specified] of the [not specified] Act
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Cites
Cited by
Citation Codes
Equivalent Citations
citation codes
Case Number
Judges
Acts
  • Section 5, Subsection 2 of the 1983 Income Tax Act
  • The new Criminal Procedure Code, 1973
  • Section 147, Section 426/149 and Section 506 of the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973
  • Section [not specified], Subsection [not specified] of the [not specified] Act
Smart Summary

Factual and Procedural Background

The appellants were part of a morcha (procession) comprising approximately 300–400 persons that started peacefully but later turned violent when some participants threw stones at the houses of certain prosecution witnesses. A Metropolitan Magistrate convicted the appellants under Sections 147, 426/149 and 506 of the Indian Penal Code, sentencing each to three months’ rigorous imprisonment (sentences to run concurrently). After the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 came into force, the appellants sought revision before the Sessions Judge, Greater Bombay, who on 3 March 1975 affirmed both conviction and sentence. Questioning the availability of a further revision to the High Court—and effectively deprived of an appellate remedy—the appellants obtained special-leave to appeal before the Supreme Court, which elected to examine the merits of the convictions.

Legal Issues Presented

  1. Whether the prosecution proved that the appellants were members of an unlawful assembly at the moment it became unlawful and shared its common object, thereby justifying convictions under Sections 147 and 149 IPC.
  2. Whether the evidence was sufficient to sustain convictions for mischief (Section 426/149 IPC) and criminal intimidation (Section 506 IPC).
  3. (Raised but not decided) Whether, after the 1973 Code of Criminal Procedure, a further revision to the High Court was maintainable when the Sessions Judge had already entertained a revision.

Arguments of the Parties

The opinion does not contain a detailed account of the parties' legal arguments.

Table of Precedents Cited

No precedents were cited in the provided opinion.

Court's Reasoning and Analysis

The Supreme Court conducted an independent appraisal of the record and found decisive deficiencies in the prosecution case:

  • Lack of evidence of membership at the critical time: The Court stressed that an accused can be held liable under Sections 147 and 149 only if it is proved that he was a member of the assembly when it turned unlawful and that he shared its common object. Merely being part of a peaceful procession earlier in time is insufficient.
  • Omission of names in the FIR: The principal eyewitness (PW 1) lodged the FIR without naming any of the appellants, despite later testifying that several of them led the morcha. The unexplained omission was deemed a “manifest defect” that undermined credibility.
  • Inadequate identification evidence: Although PW 2 stated he saw two accused in the morcha, he did not specify whether he saw them during the stone-pelting. Nor did PWs 2 or 6 communicate any identification to PW 1 prior to the FIR. This gap suggested that none of the witnesses identified the appellants at the relevant unlawful stage.
  • Error in the lower courts’ legal approach: The Sessions Judge had presumed that once the procession became unlawful, every participant automatically shared the common object. The Supreme Court rejected this as an overstatement of the law; active participation or other evidence of sharing the common object must be shown.
  • Absence of any overt act is permissible, but sharing of common object must still be proved: The Court clarified that an overt act is not required for conviction under Section 149, yet some evidence—direct or circumstantial—must demonstrate shared intent; such evidence was “wholly lacking.”

Holding and Implications

APPEAL ALLOWED; CONVICTIONS AND SENTENCES SET ASIDE; APPELLANTS ACQUITTED.

The immediate consequence is the discharge of the appellants’ bail bonds and their complete exoneration from the charges. The judgment underscores that mere presence in a group that later engages in unlawful conduct is insufficient for conviction under Sections 147 and 149 without proof of contemporaneous membership and shared common object. No broader precedent was expressly laid down beyond reaffirming this evidentiary requirement.

    Prabhakar Shankar Sawant And Other v. State Of Maharashtra .

    S. Murtaza Fazal Ali, J.— This appeal by special leave is directed against the judgment of the Sessions Judge, Greater Bombay dated March 3, 1975. The appellants were convicted by the Metropolitan Magistrate under Sections 147, 426/149 and 506 and sentenced to three months' rigorous imprisonment under each count. The sentences were directed to run concurrently. By the time the Metropolitan Magistrate decided the case the new Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 came into force and, therefore, the appellants filed a revision to the Sessions Judge. The Sessions Judge after going through the evidence affirmed the decision of the Magistrate and confirmed the convictions as also the sentences imposed on the appellants by the trial Magistrate. It appears that in view of a decision of Division Bench of the Delhi High Court that no appeal lay in the present case as the new Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 had already come into force and since the appellants had taken the matter in revision to the Sessions Judge, a further revision to the High Court was not maintainable. The correctness of the view of the High Court has been assailed before us by the learned counsel for the appellants but in the circumstances of this case we do not want to decide that question because we have decided to enter into the merits of the case as the appellants were deprived of a right of appeal in this matter. According to the evidence the appellants forming members of a morcha constituted an unlawful assembly only when it transcended its limits and started committing violence by throwing brickbats on the houses of some of the prosecution witnesses. Actually, the occurrence took place as a result of a dispute between two rival unions. A perusal of the evidence clearly shows that the entire morcha consisting of 300 to 400 persons was in the first instance peaceful but became violent only when some of the members of the assembly started pelting stones and damaged the glass panes of the houses of some of the prosecution witnesses. It is true that the Sessions Judge as also the Magistrate had held that the appellants were members of the unlawful assembly but the courts below have viewed this case from an absolutely wrong angle of vision. Before the appellants could be convicted of sharing the common object of the assembly or of being members of the same at a time when the assembly became unlawful, it had to be proved by the prosecution that the appellants were members of the unlawful assembly at the time when the assembly became unlawful and started pelting stones. To begin with there is no such evidence in this case. The evidence merely shows that the appellants were members of the morcha but there is absolutely nothing to show that they were members of the unlawful assembly when the members of the assembly started pelting stones. PW 1 who is a complainant and a full-fledged eyewitness had lodged the FIR on June 21, 1972 in which he did not mention the names of any of the appellants. That by itself is a serious infirmity in the prosecution case which is sufficient to throw doubt on the truth of the version presented by the prosecution. No explanation for the omission of the names of the appellants has been given in the statement of the complainant and in absence of any explanation this appears to us to be a manifest defect in the prosecution case on which alone the appellants are entitled to an acquittal, more particularly when the complainant says categorically in his evidence that Accused 1, 3, 4, 5, 10 and 11 were heading the morcha. Indeed if this was so then we would have expected the complainant to mention at least these names in the FIR. It is true that PW 1 in his deposition has stated that the morcha was shouting and after some time, stones were thrown at his house but he does not state anywhere in his evidence that at the time when stones were being thrown, appellants continued to be members of the morcba. Strong reliance was placed on the evidence of PW 2 who says that he saw that a morcha had come and members of the morcha had thrown stones in his house. He further says that there were 400 to 500 persons in the morcha and he had seen Accused 3 and 6 in the morcha. But he does not state at what stage he had seen these members in the morcha nor does he say that when the morcha started pelting stones and broke his window glass panes any of the appellants continued to be members of the morcha. PWs 2 and 6 are neighbours and if they had actually identified the appellants or any of them as members of the morcha at the time when stones were being pelted, they must have in ordinary circumstances revealed the name of the persons whom they identified to the complainant before he lodged the FIR. This was, however, not done which clearly shows that the witnesses did not at all identify the appellants at the stage when the morcha became unlawful. The learned Sessions Judge tried to explain away this important lacuna in the prosecution case by presuming that as the morcha moved on it must be presumed to be unlawful and any person who was a member of that assembly must be presumed to share the common object of the unlawful assembly. We think that the learned Sessions Judge has, however, overstated the law on the subject. In fact this is not a manner in which conviction for offences under Sections 147, 149 can be proved. Before the court is satisfied that an accused is a member of an unlawful assembly it must be shown either from his active participation or otherwise that he shared the common object of the unlawful assembly. It is not necessary that the accused should be guilty of any overt act. It is sufficient if it is shown that as a participant of the unlawful assembly he was sharing the common object of the same. Even that evidence is wholly lacking in the present case. In this view of the matter the evidence led by the prosecution has not at all established the complicity of the appellants in the offences with which they were charged. For these reasons, therefore, we allow this appeal, set aside the conviction and sentence imposed on the appellants and acquit them of the charges framed against them. The appellants will now be discharged from their bail bonds.

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    Prabhakar Shankar Sawant And Other v. State Of Maharashtra .
    (Feb 9, 1979)