Supreme Court: Under which circumstances burden is on prosecution to prove that complainant had not received letter sent by accused?

The complainants have denied the receipt of letter dated 3.4.1985 written by the appellant No. 2 to the father of the deceased, referred to hereinabove. However, the appellants have produced the correspondence with the post office and proved the postal stamp to show that the said letter had been sent by registered A.D. to Ramkishan Gupta (PW.8). The law in this regard is well settled.

In Gujarat Electricity Board and Anr. v. Atmaram Sungomal Poshani   MANU/SC/0200/1989 : AIR 1989 SC 1433, this Court examined the issue regarding the presumption of service of letter sent by registered post under Section 27 of the General Clauses Act, 1897 and held as under:

There is a presumption of service of a letter sent under registered cover.... No doubt the presumption is rebuttable and it is open to the party concerned to place evidence before the court to rebut the presumption by showing that the address mentioned on the cover was incorrect or that the postal authorities never tendered the registered letter to him.... The burden to rebut the presumption lies on the party challenging the factum of service.

(Emphasis added)

A similar view has been re-iterated by this Court in Chief Commissioner of Income Tax (Administration), Bangalore v. V.K. Gururaj and Ors.   MANU/SC/1348/1996 : (1996) 7 SCC 275; and Shimla Development Authority and Ors. v. Santosh Sharma (Smt.) and Anr.   MANU/SC/0416/1997 : (1997) 2 SCC 637.

In Harihar Banerji v. Ramshashi Roy AIR 1918 PC 102, a similar view had been taken by the Privy Council, referring to Illustration (f) of Section 114 of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872.

In view of the above, it was the responsibility of the complainants to prove by adducing evidence of the official of the Post Office, Kanpur that the said letter had not been delivered to them. {Para 33}

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA

Criminal Appeal No. 891 of 2004

Decided On: 11.11.2010

Sunil Kumar Sambhudayal Gupta and Ors. Vs. State of Maharashtra

Hon'ble Judges/Coram:

P. Sathasivam and B.S. Chauhan, JJ.

Author: B.S. Chauhan, J.

Citation: 2010 INSC 770,2011 ALLMR 288 (SC),MANU/SC/0947/2010.

Read full Judgment here: Click here.

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