Bombay HC orders action against hostile witnesses in all appropriate cases

Aurangabad bench of the Bombay high court has recently directed all sessions courts across Maharashtra to initiate action against hostile witnesses in all appropriate cases, observing that respect for law cannot be ensured by threat of legal action, but time has come to send out a loud and clear message that witnesses turning hostile cannot be ignored or pardoned anymore

Aurangabad bench of the Bombay high court has recently directed all sessions courts across Maharashtra to initiate action against hostile witnesses in all appropriate cases, observing that respect for law cannot be ensured by threat of legal action, but time has come to send out a loud and clear message that witnesses turning hostile cannot be ignored or pardoned anymore.

Bombay high court.

“We cannot turn a blind eye to the menace of hostile witnesses, and we cannot find ourselves helpless as against the conduct of the hostile witnesses,” said the bench of justice Ravindra Gauge and justice BU Debadwar after noticing that five of seven important witnesses in a murder case before it had turned hostile.

The judges said they were finding hostile witnesses in every other case and it was a matter of serious concern if it was happening for extraneous considerations. “This would not only be a serious ailment/disease to the justice dispensation system but could as well be cancerous to the rule of law,” said the bench while reversing the conviction of Saraswati Landge, a resident of Ambejogai in Beed district.

An additional sessions judge at Ambejogai had on September 14, 2014, convicted the 73-year-old for murdering her husband, Ganpat. She was held guilty for having crushed his head by a heavy stone when he was fast asleep and also forcefully twisting his genitals, causing considerable damage to his private parts in October 2013.

The woman had moved in an appeal against her conviction and life imprisonment handed down to her by the trial court on several grounds. HC found force in the argument advanced by advocate Aniket Vagal on her behalf that five important witnesses had not supported the prosecution case, apart from the fact that there were several discrepancies in the evidence, creating severe doubt about the prosecution case.

“We have serious doubts as to whether a 65-years-old lady could have picked up a large stone weighing about 8 kg, carried it to his room and dropped on the face of the sleeping deceased. We also doubt whether this lady could have caused all the injuries to the genitals of the deceased,” said the bench giving her benefit of the doubt.

While reversing the conviction of the elderly woman, HC also directed the trial court to initiate the action against all hostile witnesses in this case.

Taking serious note of the issue, HC also issued directions to all principal district and sessions judges to circulate the order to all additional district and sessions judges and other judicial officers “to apprise them as regards action to be initiated against hostile witnesses in appropriate cases.”