Man Convicted 9-Years After Death: Gujarat High Court Slams Police For Negligence In Not Informing, Directs Action Against Officials

The Gujarat High Court strongly "deprecated" the State police for not informing about the death of an accused which took place in 2016, whom the court had convicted for murder of his wife last month, thereby underscoring the "negligence" on the police's part in making the court hear the matter and waste judicial time. 

The court asked the Public Prosecutor to bring the negligence to the notice of the concerned Superintendent of Police to take appropriate action against the concerned police officials.

The court was hearing State's 2013 appeal which was allowed on July 11 and the sole accused was convicted for his wife's murder. As the accused was absent on that day, the Court had issued non-bailable warrant against him to secure his presence for the purpose of questioning him on the quantum of sentence.

But when the matter was taken up on July 28, to the court's "utter surprise", it was informed by the additional public prosecutor on instructions that the sole accused died on September 21, 2016 and she produced a copy of his death certificate along with report of the concerned Police Inspector.

The APP submitted that the factum of his death was not informed earlier to the office of Public Prosecutor or atleast to her when the matter was heard by the high court. Thus, she could not bring it to the notice of the Court.

A division bench of Justice CM Roy and Justice DM Vyas in its order said, "We very seriously deprecate the said negligence on the part of the concerned police in not informing the factum of death of the accused to the office of the PP of the High Court and also to present APP even when the matter is taken up for final hearing".

It observed that the police and office of Public Prosecutor "made the Court hear the matter" in a case where accused passed away long back.

The bench said that when the accused had passed away in 2016 in an appeal filed in 2013, the matter stood abated at the time of his death. However for nine years, both the police and the office of PP did not bring the factum of accused's death to the court's notice. 

It said,

"It is a fit case where appropriate action is to be taken against the concerned police for their negligence in discharging their duties in not informing the office of PP and also to the Court regarding the factum of death of the sole accused in the case to enable the Court to pass appropriate order of abatement of the appeal against the accused. Therefore, both the learned PP and APP are hereby directed to take the act of negligence on the part of the concerned Police to the notice of Superintendent of Police, Kheda District to take appropriate action against the concerned police officials who are very negligent in discharging their duties in not bringing to the notice of office of PP and also to the notice of the Court regarding the death of the Accused".

The court further directed the Public Prosecutor's office to take steps to see that such incidents do not recur in future which cause inconvenience to the Court and wastes the court's time where a judgment is passed in an appeal which stood abated.

"The office of PP also equally got responsibilities to verify in such old appeals regarding the availability or not of the accused before commencing argument in final hearing matter of such cases. It shows that there is lack of proper coordination between police and the office of the PP," the bench added. 

In view of the fact that the accused had passed away, the bench said that its July 11 judgment convicting the accused will have no effect.

The bench recalled the judgment and disposed of the appeal as abated.

Case title: STATE OF GUJARAT vs RAIJIBHAI FULABHAI SODHA

Click Here To Read/Download Order 

Citation: 2025 LiveLaw (Guj) 126