01 Read
What happened
Rubabuddin Sheikh, brother of Sohrabuddin Sheikh, has filed a plea before the Supreme Court challenging the Bombay High Court order acquitting 22 accused in the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case. Of the 22 acquitted, 21 are police officers from Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Andhra Pradesh. The case involves the alleged extrajudicial killing of Sohrabuddin, his wife Kausar Bi, and associate Tulsiram Prajapati between 2005 and 2006. The challenge tests whether victims' kin can invoke appellate jurisdiction against acquittals.
02 Understand
Why it matters
The Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case is a landmark instance at the intersection of custodial killing, extrajudicial execution, and the rights of victims' relatives in appellate proceedings.
The core legal issue now before the Supreme Court is procedural: can a private complainant — here, the brother of the deceased — challenge an acquittal recorded by a High Court? Under the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), Section 372 (and its proviso inserted by the 2008 amendment) explicitly grants victims the right to prefer an appeal against an order of acquittal. Before this amendment, only the State could challenge acquittals. The 2008 proviso to Section 372 changed this position, giving victims a statutory right to appeal.
The corresponding provision under the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), 2023 is Section 399, which preserves the victim's right to appeal against acquittal.
The substantive allegations involve offences under Sections 302 (murder), 364 (kidnapping), and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence) of the IPC. The trial was originally conducted by a CBI Special Court in Mumbai after the Supreme Court transferred it from Gujarat, citing concerns about a fair trial. All accused were acquitted by the trial court in 2019, and the High Court has now upheld those acquittals.
For CLAT PG, the key doctrinal angles are: (1) the locus standi of a victim's relative to appeal against acquittal, (2) the standard of review in appeals against acquittal — whether the appellate court must find the trial court's view 'perverse' or 'impossible,' and (3) the constitutional dimensions under Article 21 (right to life and dignity) that underpin custodial killing jurisprudence.
The core legal issue now before the Supreme Court is procedural: can a private complainant — here, the brother of the deceased — challenge an acquittal recorded by a High Court? Under the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), Section 372 (and its proviso inserted by the 2008 amendment) explicitly grants victims the right to prefer an appeal against an order of acquittal. Before this amendment, only the State could challenge acquittals. The 2008 proviso to Section 372 changed this position, giving victims a statutory right to appeal.
The corresponding provision under the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), 2023 is Section 399, which preserves the victim's right to appeal against acquittal.
The substantive allegations involve offences under Sections 302 (murder), 364 (kidnapping), and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence) of the IPC. The trial was originally conducted by a CBI Special Court in Mumbai after the Supreme Court transferred it from Gujarat, citing concerns about a fair trial. All accused were acquitted by the trial court in 2019, and the High Court has now upheld those acquittals.
For CLAT PG, the key doctrinal angles are: (1) the locus standi of a victim's relative to appeal against acquittal, (2) the standard of review in appeals against acquittal — whether the appellate court must find the trial court's view 'perverse' or 'impossible,' and (3) the constitutional dimensions under Article 21 (right to life and dignity) that underpin custodial killing jurisprudence.
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