Hon’ble Supreme
Court in the case of “Iqbal Abdul Samiya
Malek vs. State of Gujarat” [CRIMINAL APPEAL NO.1584 OF 2012 in SPECIAL
LEAVE PETITION (CRL.) NO. 3583 OF 2012)] held that:
“It is the duty of an Appellate Court to look into the evidence
adduced in the case arrive at an independent conclusion as to whether the said
evidence can be relied upon or not and even it can be relied upon then whether
the prosecution can be said to
have proved beyond reasonable
doubt on the said evidence. The credibility of a witness has to be
adjudged by Appellate Court in drawing inference from proved and admitted facts.”
On the facts of
the case, Supreme Court observed that:
"In view of the above contention, we have gone through the
impugned judgment of the High Court. As rightly pointed out by the learned
counsel appearing on behalf of the appellants, after narrating the case of the
prosecution and the defence as well as the order of the Sessions Judge
convicting the appellants, without adverting to all the materials, the High
Court has merely disposed of the appeal. The procedure followed by the High
Court in a matter of this nature is not acceptable. Elaborate procedures have been
prescribed under Section 386 of Crl.PC. for disposal of the appeal by the
Appellate Court.
See full
judgement here: