STATE Vs. K SREE RAMA MURTHY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) All these appeals raise common questions of fact and law. They have been heard together and are being decided by this common judgment. There is no dispute with regard to the facts giving rise to these appeals and the facts are that, all the accused were facing prosecution under various provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act before the trial Courts when a judgment came to be pronounced by the Supreme Court being Raj Deo Sharma v. State of Bihar, AIR 1998 SC 3281. This judgment was delivered on 8th October, 1998. Applying the judgment the trial Courts closed the evidence of the prosecution which resulted in the acquittal of the accused. Thereafter, second judgment in Raj Deo Sharma's case (supra), was pronounced on 22nd September, 1999, 1999 (2) ALD (Crl.) 662 (SC) = 1999 (8) Supreme 237. All the acquittals were ordered after first judgment but before the second judgment.

(2.) The controversy is very short but the question raised is important. The learned Counsel appearing for the appellants fairly conceded that on application of the first judgment in Raj Deo Sharma's case (supra), the accused were entitled to acquittal and trial Courts were right in closing the evidence, but because of the clarifications given by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in the second judgment the order of acquittal needs to be set aside and the trial should commence denovo from the stage the accused were acquitted.

(3.) Now, the only question which will have to be answered by this Court is, whether the second judgment in Raj Deo Sharma's case (supra), will apply retrospectively with regard to those cases which were decided when the first judgment was in operation and the second judgment had yet to come. The learned Counsel for the appellants submitted that the accused cannot be subjected to a re-trial because the law of the land has been changed. They however do not dispute that if the latter judgment is applied to the present appeals the orders of acquittal will have to be set aside.