Says trial court dropped vital witnesses in 1997 dowry death case
In an antithesis to the adage ‘justice delayed is justice denied’, a Gujarat judge earned the ire of the Supreme Court for finishing a dowry death trial in just nine days. In a hurry to pronounce the judgment, the Sessions Judge of Mehsana District dropped vital witnesses and did not allow production of documents to aid the prosecution case which led to the acquittal of all the accused except the husband of the deceased.
Setting aside the trial court order passed on January 7, 2005, the apex court was at its wits’ end to note how the trial judge made a mockery of the trial and ended up acquitting the accused without looking into the wealth of evidence produced by the prosecution. “All concerned were in a hurry to finish the case in a day,” the apex court observed. It even aimed at the prosecutor’s role during trial in allowing the judge to have his way which made the Court suspect the conduct of both officers as “dubious”.
“This is an exceptional case where this Court has taken a serious note of the way the Sessions Judge disposed of the Sessions case within a period of nine days,” said the bench of Justices MY Eqbal and Abhay Manohar Sapre.
The incident occurred on December 16, 1997. A woman from Mehsana, Gujarat set herself on fire by pouring kerosene and alleged in her dying declaration that she was forced to take this step due to harassment and cruelty by her husband and in-laws who suspected her character. From the two-year wedlock the couple had a daughter.
The prosecution presented a list of 12 witnesses and 17 documents. The judge examined only four witnesses and permitted four documents to be exhibited. Strangely, the prosecution did not object. Rather, it silently played along to the judge’s plan. On a single day, statement of the accused was recorded, arguments heard and judgment pronounced acquitting all but one.