Uttaranchal High Court: The Court recently addressed a criminal petition in which the appellant had appealed against his conviction by trial court under S. 307 IPC and sentenced accordingly. The main contention on which the accused based his appeal was that the case against him was not proved beyond reasonable doubt as there was no eyewitness against himself except the injured himself and his two minor children who the counsel said, could be tutored very easily.
The Court examined all the witnesses in the case along with its facts and observed that it is true that a child witness is susceptible to be swayed by what others tell him or her and therefore, he/she is an easy prey to tutoring. However, the Bench of Lok Pal Singh, J. said that when the evidence lead by a child witness is found reliable, it cannot be discarded merely on the ground that the same has been made by child witness.
The Court after re-appreciating the entire incident, came to the conclusion that the evidence by child witnesses corroborated the statements of other witnesses and thus, it was worth relying on and dismissed the appeal. [Rakesh Mohan Juyal v. State of Uttaranchal, 2017 SCC OnLine Utt 1508, decided on 12.12.2017]
