Supreme Court: Accused Can Challenge Conviction In Appeal Filed By The State Even If He Did Not Prefer A Formal Appeal (Download Full Judgement)

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Supreme Court

State of Rajasthan Versus Mehram & Ors. Criminal Appeal No. 1894/2010 decided on 06.05.2020

Supreme Court: An accused can challenge the finding and order of conviction in the appeal filed by the State, even though the said accused he had not preferred a formal appeal.

The Rajasthan High Court had converted the conviction of one of the accused in a murder case (Mehram) from under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code into one under Section 326, IPC. The State preferred the appeal against this judgment seeking restoration of his conviction under Section 302, IPC and to award him sentence of life imprisonment.

The Supreme Court said:-

"The accused No. 5 (Mehram S/o Chhagna Ram) is justified in contending that it is open to the said accused to challenge the finding and order of conviction under Section 326/148, IPC recorded against him in the appeal filed by the State, assailing the impugned judgment of the High Court. That being the settled legal position, as expounded in Chandrakant Patil (supra), Sumer Singh (supra) and Ramanand (supra) including Section 377(3) of the Cr.P.C., which predicates that in the appeal filed against the sentence on the ground of its inadequacy, the accused may plead for his acquittal or for reduction of the sentence."

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