Punjab and Haryana High Court: Hard to disbelieve injured victim's account of accident

Saurabh Malik
Chandigarh, March 20

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has ruled that it was extremely difficult to disbelieve an injured eyewitness’ account of an accident as he had no motive to implicate the accused. The ruling by Justice Jasjit Singh Bedi came in a fatal accident case that took almost a decade ago.

No motive to implicate accused

It would be extremely difficult to disbelieve the eye version account of the accident victim, when he has received injuries in the mishap as he can have no possible motive to falsely implicate the accused, unknown to him prior to the occurrence. Justice Jasjit Singh Bedi,Punjab and Haryana High Court

Quoting a plethora of Supreme Court judgments, Justice Bedi also reiterated that the failure of a witness to state that the accused was driving the vehicle in a rash and negligent manner was not a ground to acquit him. The circumstances of a case established whether the accused was driving in a rash and negligent manner.

“In a case under Section 304-A of the IPC (causing death by negligence), it would be extremely difficult to disbelieve the eye version account of the accident victim, when he has received injuries in the occurrence because he can have no possible motive to falsely implicate an accused who is unknown to him prior to the occurrence,” Justice Bedi asserted.

Referring to a judgment in the case of “Bir Chand versus the State of Haryana 2003”, Justice Bedi added that it had been clearly held that the accused could not be acquitted merely because the witness did not state the accused was driving in a rash and negligent manner. Mere parrot-like repetition of the words that he was driving in a rash and negligent manner was not required.

The assertion came in a fatal accident case, where the counsel for the accused argued that he ought to be acquitted as he was not identified properly, the presence of the witnesses was doubtful and there was no evidence of the petitioner driving the vehicle in a rash and negligent manner.

The matter was brought to Justice Bedi’s notice after the accused filed a revision petition. He was initially convicted and sentence to two years’ imprisonment in November 2018 by Bahadurgarh Sub-Divisional Judicial Magistrate. His appeal against the order was dismissed by Jhajjar Additional Sessions Judge, following which the matter was placed before Justice Bedi. The accident had taken place in December 2013.

Before parting with the case, Justice Bedi added that the petitioner was a first-time offender. The occurrence was almost a decade old. As such, the sentence was modified and reduced to one-and-a half years while placing reliance on the Supreme Court and High Court judgments.