PANJIM: The High Court of Bombay at Goa on Tuesday reserved its order in a petition filed by senior journalist Tarun Tejpal challenging the maintainability of State government’s appeal against the judgment of trial court acquitting Tejpal in a case of rape.
Opposing the grant of leave to the State government to file the appeal, the former editor-in-chief of Tehelka magazine’s counsel Amit Desai told the court on Tuesday that “just because the investigating officer or the State government does not like the judgment of acquittal does not mean it is miscarriage of justice”.
Desai emphasised that the government had filed its appeal against acquittal even before the complete judgment was made available and it was filed by an Additional Public Prosecutor and not routed through the ‘Public Prosecutor’ as defined under Section 378 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) that refers to appeal in case of acquittal.
Desai argued the provision in the CrPC ensures an elaborate process to ensure “an independent and objective view to decide whether the accused should be put through further ignominy”.
He said that that the investigating officer and Public Prosecutor filing the appeal have to be ‘divorced’ from each other for taking away the inherent bias and to ensure that the State government or the investigating officer does not go after the accused because of extraneous factors.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta argued that the trial court’s judgment was an “encyclopedia” on how a victim of sexual assault should behave.
He said that the Additional Sessions Judge had also disallowed certain questions put to the woman during the trial and “diligently and cautiously examined legal principles” despite which, she concluded with an acquittal.
The High Court on hearing both the parties over the last few days, on Tuesday reserved the order. The court is also expected to pass its verdict in another plea filed by Tejpal seeking renewal of his passport that expired during the trial against him.
Tejpal was accused of sexually assaulting a then colleague in an elevator of a hotel in Goa on November 7, 2013 and November 8, 2013.
