A bench of Justice Rao and Justice Gupta has passed the order in the case titled as ASIM @ MUNMUN @ ASIF ABDULKARIM SOLANKI vs THE STATE OF GUJARAT on 28.01.2020.
The Appellant was convicted for an offence under Section 302 read with Section 34 and Section 114 of the Indian Penal Code (‘IPC’) apart from Section 35 of the Gujarat Police Act, 1951. He was sentenced to life imprisonment under Section 302. Aggrieved by the conviction and sentence, the Appellant filed a criminal appeal before the High Court of Gujarat at Ahmedabad. The Appellant filed an application under Section 391 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (Cr.P.C.) seeking permission to produce additional evidence to substantiate his plea of alibi. The said application was opposed by the State. By an Order dated 10.4.2019, the High Court disposed of the application by observing that the Appellant is at liberty to submit an appropriate application at the time when the appeal is finally heard.
When the matter reached the Supreme Court, it observed and held as under:
“Section 391 of the Cr.P.C. does not impose any restriction as to when the application filed for adducing additional evidence should be heard by the High Court. In fact, we are of the opinion that it is desirable that an application filed under Section 391 should be heard immediately after it is filed without waiting for the appeal to be finally heard.
Without making any observation on the merits of the case or the application filed under Section 391, we request the High Court to hear the application under Section 391 at the earliest. The order passed by the High Court is set aside. The appeal is allowed”.
Read the Order here:
391
