Appeal against acquittal Reversal of finding-Duty of appellate Court

6.    •  Section 378 CRPC  Appeal against acquittal Reversal of finding-Duty of appellate Court. The appellate Court has full power to review the evidence upon which the order of acquittal is founded. However, while exercising such an appellate power in a case of acquittal, the appellate Court, should not only consider every matter on record having a bearing on the question of fact and the reasons given by the Courts below in support of its order of acquittal, it must express its reasons in the judgment which led it to hold that the acquittal is not justified. In those line of cases Supreme Court has also held that the appellate Court must also bear in mind the fact that the trial Court had the benefit of seeing the witnesses in the witness-box and the presumption of innocence is not weakened by the order of acquittal, and in such cases if two reasonable conclusions can be reached on the basis of the evidence on record, the appellate Court should not disturb the finding of the trail Court

C Antony vs KN Raghavna CRLA 1786/96 01/11/02 [ SANTOSH JJ ] [ SUPREME COURT ]