STATE OF GUJARAT Vs. AHMEDALI ABBASALI BALOCH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By way of this Appeal, the State has challenged the judgment dated 5th June 1993 passed by the learned Judicial Magistrate (F.C.), Chhotaudepur, in Criminal Case No. 964 of 1989 whereby the Trial Court has acquitted the present opponents, original-accused under Section 279, 337 and 338 of the Indian Penal Code read with Section 112,116 and 89 of the Motor Vehicles Act read with Rule 25(1) and 18 of the Motor Vehicles Act.

(2.) The brief facts of the case is that on 21st April 1989 at about 12 Noon the present accused were on duty in the bus bearing No. GRR 2-9568 of State Transport Corporation which was going from Malu to Tejgadh. While crossing railway crossing No. C/89 which was an unmanned railway crossing without gate the driver while driving the bus rashly and negligently dashed with the train causing the accident. To prove the case, the Prosecution has examined the following 16 witnesses;

(3.) The principles which would govern and regulate the hearing of appeal by this Court against an order of acquittal passed by the trial Court have been very succinctly explained by the Apex Court in a catena of decisions. This Court has the power to re-consider the whole issue involved in the appeal, re-appraise the evidence and come to its own conclusion and findings in place of the findings recorded by the trial Court, if the said findings are against the weight of the evidence on record or, in other words, perverse. Even in a recent decision of the Apex Court in the case of State of Goa v. Sanjay Thakran & anr., 2007 3 SCC 755, the Court has reiterated similar principle. In Para-16 of the said decision, the Court has observed as under ;