Union of India v. V.N. Singh

1. This appeal is against the concurrent finding of the trial court as well as the High Court whereby respondent No. 2, the husband has been acquitted for the offences under Sections 304B (now BNS 80) and 498A (now BNS 85, BNS 86) of the Indian Penal Code for having caused the dowry death of his wife about two years after the marriage. Both the courts have noted that a suicide note had been written by the deceased shortly before her death in which she had observed that nobody was responsible for her death either from the side of her in-laws or from the side of her parents and she was committing suicide as she had lost interest in life and that nobody should be held responsible for her death. The courts below have also noted that the attempt of the appellant herein Jaggu Singh, the father of the deceased, Crl. App. No. 1168 of 2003 to bring in evidence in Court with regard to the cruelty meted out to his late daughter could not be believed for the simple reason that he had made no such statement under Section 161 (now BNSS 180) of the Code of Criminal Procedure. We are, therefore, of the opinion that in the light of the concurrent findings of fact recorded by the trial court as well as by the High Court, no interference is called for in this appeal.

2. For the reasons aforesaid, the appeal is dismissed.

Separate opinion

1. We find from the impugned judgment that a very limited relief had been granted to the respondent herein. The relevant portion of the judgment is reproduced below: “In view of the above, the writ petition is allowed with a direction to the respondents to reconsider the entire matter and to pass a speaking order in accordance with law. It goes without saying that the petitioner shall be entitled to all consequential benefits, which would flow from the quashing of the impugned order.”

2. We are unable to understand as to why, in the light of the above observations, the Union of India has chosen to file an appeal against the order as no decision on merits had been rendered or any opinion expressed thereon by the Division Bench of the High Court.

CA 7178 of 2002

3. We, accordingly, dismiss the appeal. The impugned judgments be complied with as expeditiously as possible as the respondent has been out of service since long.