Best case principle be applied in rare cases: SC

The Supreme Court yesterday issued a "note of caution" to the courts below that its order in the Best Bakery case should not be applied in all cases against the established principles of criminal jurisprudence.

"Directions for retrial should not be made in all or every case where acquittal of the accused is for want of adequate or reliable evidence," the court clarified in a case of suspicious death of a woman.

"In the Best Bakery case, the first trial was found to be a farce and is described as a mock trial. Therefore, the direction for retrial was, in fact, for a real trial. Such extraordinary situation alone can justify the directions as made by this court in the Best Bakery case."

The Bench comprising Justice YK Sabharwal and Justice DM Dharmadhikari was dealing with a case in which the charge was that the husband and his relatives treated the wife with cruelty leading to her suicide. The first court acquitted the accused persons.

The mother of the wife appealed to the Calcutta High Court. It found several lacunae in the trial and remanded the case "for fresh decision from stage one". It pointed out several defects in the trial and asked the criminal court to follow the "suggested formula".

The high court further asked the trial court to be more "dynamic" and to pursue truth instead of resigning to the fate as ordained by the prosecution. The accused persons argued that these observations were an indirect signal to the trial court to convict them.

On the other hand, the mother of the girl relied on the Best case in which the Supreme Court ordered retrial of several cases related to the Gujarat riots.

Rejecting this analogy, the Supreme Court said the Gujarat riot case was an "extraordinary case in which this court was convinced that the entire prosecution machinery was trying to shield the accused, that is, the rioters."

"It was also found that the entire trial was a farce. Witnesses were terrified and intimidated to keep them away from the court. It is in the aforesaid extraordinary circumstances that the court not only directed a fresh trial of the whole case but made further directions for appointment of the new prosecutor with due consultation with the victims," the court said in its judgment.

Therefore, the steps taken in that case should not be followed in every case, the Supreme Court said while upholding the remand order of the high court.