Dashwanth vs The State Of Tamil Nadu 2025 INSC 1203 - Death Sentence Acquittal - Constitutional Rights Of Accused To Defend Himself

Criminal Trial - The constitutional right afforded to an accused charged with an offence to defend himself is not illusory or imaginary. For the trial to be fair and reasonable, an effective opportunity to defend must be provided to the accused and representation by a counsel of choice is an important component of this guarantee. In a case where accused is facing charges for offences which carry capital punishment, this constitutional mandate becomes even more sacrosanct, and it is the duty of the Court as well as the State to ensure that the accused is not prejudiced or deprived of a fair opportunity of defending himself in a case where he may be awarded death penalty.- Such opportunity would unquestionably require: - (a) Providing copies of all relied upon documents to the accused immediately on submission of report under Section 173(2) CrPC (Section 193 BNSS)/committal of case under Section 209 CrPC (Section 232 BNSS). (b) Ensuring that the accused is represented by a lawyer of his own choice and in case, he/she is not in a position to engage a private counsel then, a legal aid defence counsel having requisite experience must be appointed to represent him at the trial - in capital punishment offences, legal aid defense counsel so appointed should preferably have an experience of 10 years at the bar. (c) The legal aid counsel so appointed should be given sufficient opportunity to go through the record and prepare the matter for carrying out effective cross-examination from the witnesses. (d) The Court should not act as a mute spectator during recording of evidence, as provided under Section 165 of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 (Section 168 of the Bhartiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023). The Court must remain vigilant, and in case any important question necessary to arrive at a just decision of the case is omitted to be put to the witnesses either by the defence counsel or the public prosecutor, the Court must not let such lacuna creep into the proceedings, and it must be ensured that Court put questions to the witnesses for ensuring fairness in the proceedings. (Para 36-37)

Circumstantial Evidence - In a case based purely on circumstantial evidence, the onus is upon the prosecution to prove the chain of unbroken circumstances beyond all manner of doubt. The chain of incriminating circumstances must be complete, conclusive and should exclude every hypothesis other than the guilt of the accused. In other words, it must be proved from the chain of incriminating circumstances that no reasonable doubt can be entertained about the accused person’s innocence, demonstrating that it was the accused and none other who committed the offence. (Para 42)

Summary - SC allowed appeal filed by accused who was sentenced to death for rape and murder of seven year old girl and observed: While it is acknowledged that the acquittal of an individual involved in a heinous crime can lead to societal distress and cause grave anguish to the victim’s family, the legal framework does not permit the Courts to punish an accused person based merely on moral convictions or conjectures. Each case must be adjudicated by the Courts rigorously on its individual merits and in strict conformity with the law, without yielding to public sentiment and external pressures. (Para 80)