Determining "No Legal Evidence" or "Manifestly Inconsistent Evidence": Test, Method, and Its Application by a Session Judge in Criminal Revision Against an Order of Issue of Process

 I. The Nature of the Test

The inquiry into whether there is "no legal evidence" or evidence "manifestly inconsistent" with the accusation is not an exercise in weighing credibility, reliability, or sufficiency of evidence. It is a threshold, objective screening of what is placed on the record — distinct from trial adjudication. The court asks only whether any evidence touching the offence exists at all, or whether the material on record is irreconcilably self-contradictory — never whether existing evidence is convincing or likely to result in conviction.

II. Governing Legal Standard 

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No Legal Evidence, No Process: A Session Judge's Compass for Deciding Criminal Revisions Against Orders Issuing Process

 The Core Idea in One Line

An order issuing process cannot survive revision if it rests on no admissible, relevant material connecting the accused to the offence — but a Sessions Judge examining that question in revision must look only at the record that was before the Magistrate, and must never reweigh or reappraise the evidence found there.

What Counts as "Legal Evidence"

"Legal evidence" is admissible material — recognized as such under the Evidence Act — bearing a rational, probative connection to an ingredient of the offence charged. It is not simply anything appearing in the case file. Four elements define it:

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Supreme Court: No FIR U/S 498A of IPC is complete without Sections 506(2) and 323 of the Indian Penal Code.

In all cases, where wife complains of harassment or ill-treatment, Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code cannot be applied mechanically. No FIR is complete without Sections 506(2) and 323 of the Indian Penal Code. Every matrimonial conduct, which may cause annoyance to the other, may not amount to cruelty. Mere trivial irritations, quarrels between spouses, which happen in day-to-day married life, may also not amount to cruelty.

Ratio: If a person is made to face a criminal trial on some general and sweeping allegations without bringing on record any specific instances of criminal conduct, it is nothing but abuse of the process of the court.

 IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA

Criminal Appeal No. 2379 of 2024 

Decided On: 03.05.2024

Achin Gupta Vs. State of Haryana and Ors.

Hon'ble Judges/Coram:

J.B. Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, JJ.

J.B. Pardiwala, J.

Author: Citation: 2024 INSC 369, MANU/SC/0377/2024

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