Holding

The Court held that PW1’s testimony was credible and sufficient to sustain the convictions, and the doctrine of falsus in uno falsus in omnibus does not require dismissal of her evidence.

Summary

The Supreme Court examined the murder of Prabha, for which seven accused were convicted under Section 302 IPC. The prosecution’s case rested primarily on the testimony of the victim’s mother (PW1), who narrated that the accused, armed with knives, had threatened and later chased and killed her son. Although several other eyewitnesses later retracted their statements, the Court held that PW1’s evidence was trustworthy, corroborated by the complaint and medical findings, and that the doctrine of falsus in uno falsus in omnibus does not mandate wholesale rejection of a witness’s testimony. The Court distinguished normal from material discrepancies, finding none that undermined PW1’s account. Consequently, the appeals challenging the convictions were dismissed, upholding the lower courts’ judgments.

Issues considered

What is the evidentiary weight of a primary eyewitness (the victim's mother) when other witnesses have recanted?
Does the maxim falsus in uno falsus in omnibus compel the court to discard the entire testimony of a witness who is partially unreliable?
Are the discrepancies in PW1’s statements material or merely normal, and how does this affect the credibility of her testimony?
Can prior acquittal of the accused in a related case (the murder of Babu) be used to infer falsehood in the present case?

Legislation cited

Indian Penal Code, 1860s. 147, s. 148, s. 302, s. 320

Subjects

murderIPC 302unlawful assemblyevidence credibilityfalsus in uno falsus in omnibusmaterial discrepancywitness testimonyconviction upheld

Judgment

[2009) 2 S.C.R. 1210

A MANI @ UDATTU MAN & ORS.
v
STATE REP. BY INSPECTOR OF POLICE
Criminal Appeal Nos. 382-384 of 2009
FEBRUARY 25, 2009
B
[DR. ARIJIT PASAYAT AND DR. MUKUNDAKAM
SHARMA, JJ.]
Penal Code, 1860 - s. 302 - Murder - Accused forming
unlawful assembly - and armed with. dangerous weapons
C inflicted fatat injuries to deceased - Previous enmity between
parties - Accused also threatened family members of
deceased - Incident witnessed by mother of deceased -
Conviction u/s. 302 by courts below on basis of evidence of
mother even though other prosecution witnesses resiled from
D their statement - Justification of - Held: Justified - Evidence
of mother was trustworthy, and rightly acted upon - It cannot
be said that the mother falsely implicated the accused.
Maxims - Falsus in uno falsus in omnibus - Meaning of
E - Applicability in India - Stated.
Criminal law - Duty of court - To separate grain from
chaff - Administration of justice.
Evidence - Normal discrepancies and material
discrepancies - Distinction between.
F
Prosecution case was that accused persons were
implicated in the murder case of B-son of PW1 and were
acquitted. Thereafter, acc'used persons armed with knives
came to the house of PW1 and threatened to kill P, other
G son of PW".'1. Next day accused came to the house of PW-
. 1, chased ,,P. and killed him. PW-1 and PW-2-daughter-in-
law, followed the accused'. They witnessed the incident.
The courts below convicted all the accused except 8th
accused u/s. 302 IPC. Hence the present appeals.
H 1210
MANI @ UDATTU MAN & ORS. V. STATE REP. BY 1211
INSPECTOR OF POLICE

Dismissing the appeals, the Court A
~

HELD: 1.1 In the instant case, in the examination of
PW1, it has been stated that, in the morning the accused
armed with knives had come and threatened to kill P and
that is the night when P came. She told him that he shouid
go and hide himself. On the next day, in the morning, the
8
accused armed with knives came and on seeing them P
ran and accused followed him and PW1 alongwith her
.J daughter-in-law PW2 followed and after running for some
distance, A2 and A1 cut the deceased on his head with
the knife and A3, A4, AG, A5, A7 cut P on the shoulder and c
other parts of the body and AB was holding P by his legs
and these facts appear to corroborate the contents of the
complaint lodged by PW1 in the Police Station. The
evidence of PW1 in the cross examination when compared
with the complaint, corroborates it and strengthens the D
. prosecution version. On examining complaint it is evident
. that the evidence of PW1 that all the accused are known
to her and that all the accused were armed with the M01
series knives. Therefore, on the basis of the evidence of
PW1 being trustworthy and believable has been rightly E
-:
acted upon. [Para 5] [1217-H; 1218-A-E]
' /

1.2. Merely because the accused were investigated
in the case of 8, the evidence of PW1 cannot be
disregarded. It is seen from the evidence of PW1 that
PW1 's other son B had been killed and the accused in F
the instant case was implicated there also and were
acquitted. PW1 also stated that S-6 months after the death
of 8 her son P was killed. On considering the evidence of
PW1 that she knew the accused from their childhood and
that due to the enmity of the accused with her children, G
they killed her sons and that on 8.3.2001 the accused
armed with knives came to her house and threatened to
kill P and that she informed this to P and that the next
day, the accused came to her house, chased P and killed
her, it cannot be said that just because the accused were H
1212 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [2009] 2 S.C.R.

A set free in the case of B, PW1 with the ~wrong intention ~
implicated the .accused in the instant case. Just because
the eye witness to the incident is related to the deceased,
the evidence of the said eye witness c-annot be
'
disregarded. When the evidence of the interested
B 'Witnesses is corroborated by the medical evidence, then
the entire evidence of the interested witnesses ought not
be rejected on that ground. [Para 6] [1218-G-H; 1219-A-D]
Nisar Alli v. The State of Uttar Pradesh AIR 1957 SC 366; ~

Gurucharan Singh and Anr. v. State of Punjab AIR 1956 SC
c 460; Sohrab s/o Beli Nayata and Anr. V. The State of Madhya
Pradesh 1972 (3) SCC 751; Ugar Ahir and Ors. v. The State of
f
Bihar AIR 1965 SC 277; Zwinglee Ariel v. State of Madhya ;-
Pradesh AIR 1954 SC 15; Ba/aka Singh and Ors. v. The State -·
·'

of Punjab 1975 (4) SCC 511; State of Rajasthan v. Smt Kalki
D and Anr. 1981 (2) SCC 752; Krishna Machi and Ors. v. State
of Biharetc. 2002 (6) SCC 81; Sucha Singh v. State of Punjab
2003 (7) SCC 643; Zahira H. Sheikh v. State of Gujarat 2004
(4) SCC 158; Ram Udgar Singh v. State of Bihar 2004(10)
SCC 443; Gorle S. Naidu v. State of Andhra Pradesh 2003
E (12) SCC 449; Gubbala Venugopa/swamy v. State of Andhra ..
Pradesh 2004 (10) SCC 120; Syed lbahim v. State of A.P 2006 ,.
(10) SCC 601; Balakram and Ors vs. State of UP AIR 1974
.....
SC 2165; Ushamubalu Sakdu vs. State of Maharashtra AIR
1976 SC 557 - relied on.
F Case Law Reference
· Af R 1957 SC 366 Relied on. Para 4
AIR 1956 SC 460 Relied on. Para 4

G 1s12 (3) sec 751 Relied on. Para 4
AIR 1965 SC 277 Relied on. Para 4 .l

AIR 1954 SC 15 Relied on. Para 4
1s1s (4) sec s11 Relied on. Para 4
H
f

MANI'@ UDATTU MAN & ORS. V. STATE REP. BY 1213
INSPECTOR OF POLICE

~
1981 (2) sec 752 .Relied on. Para 4 A

2002 (6) sec 81 Relied on. Para 4
2003. (7) sec 643 Relied on. Para 4
2004 (4) sec 158 Relied on. Para 4
B
2004(10) sec 443 Relied on. Para 4
2003 (12) sec 449 Relied on. Para 4
2004 (10) sec 120. Relied on. Para 4
2006 (10)·SCC 601 Relied on. Para 4 c
AIR 1974 SC 2165 Relied on. Para 6
AIR 1976 SC 557 Relied on. Para 6
CRIMINALAPPELLATE JURISDlCTION : Criminal Appeal D
Nos. 382-384 of 2009
From the Judgement and Order dated 27.07.2006 of the
Hon'ble High Court of Judicature at Madras in Criminal Appeal
Nos. 279, 438 & 446 of 2004.
~

*· E I

Prasanthi Prasad, for the Appellants.
.... ~ :

S. Thananjayan, for the Respondent.
The Judgement of the Court was delivered by

__,. DR. ARIJIT P_ASAYAT, J. F
~
1. Leave granted.
~' 2. Challenge in this appeal is to the judgment of the
Division B.ench of the Madras High Court dismissing the appeal
field by the appellants who were convicted for offences G
-.t punishable under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860
(in short the 'IPC'). The 8th accused was acquitted of the charges
under Sections 148 and 302 IPC. Of the seven accused persons
who were convicted by the VII Additional Sessions Judg~, two
I
.. separate appeals were filed . H
1214 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [2009] 2 S.C.R.
}-

A 3. Prosecution version as unfolded during trial is as follows : I.

f?W-1 who is Murugammal the mother of the Prabha
(hereinafter referred to as the 'deceased') in this case has stated
that her second son Babu had already been murdered by the
accused in this case namely Ali, Cheyya Babu, Udattumani,
B
Muthukumar, Jayaraman, Karikadi Moideen and others and that
on 8.3.2001 at 11.00 P.M in the night all
the aforesaid accused. ,.
armed with knife came to her house and with the intention to
'r
murder her son Prabha; threatened him and t,hat later on
9.3.2001 at 5.30 a.m. in the morning all the accused in this case
c armed with knives came to her house and that on seeing them
she sent away her son Pr.abha from the house and that the
~ .{ I "
,....
accused had chased him and that she also followed them along
with her daughter-in-law. After crossing DH Road and Mutha
Tamil Nagar, they ran for some distance and that at that spot the
b accused Ali and Udattumani attacked her son Prabha with ..l
knives and inflicted out injuries on his head, and the accused
Cheyya, Muthukumar, Kovil Babu, Jayaraman and Karikattai
Moideen inflicted out injuries on the neck, shoulder, hands legs
and several parts of the body indiscriminately, and the accused
E logu caught Prabha by the legs and r~st of the accused together
ran away from these and that her son was lying in the pool of ,~
-.-
blood and succumbed to his injuries and that later, she and her
daughter-in-law went to Kodunkaiyoor Police Station and lodged -~

the Ex.P-1 complaint and the knives exhibited in this Court were
F used by the accused to murder her son and the said 7 knives ,.--
were the M.0.1 series. !
I
'
As per -the chargesheet filed by the SHO of P-6
Kodunkaiyoor Police Station, Chennai, against the accused,
the accused. Prabha was residing within the limits 9f the
G Kodungayoor Plice Station, and that the accused were c;tlso
4,
~~
resic!ing in th~ same area. The accused had previous enmity
due lo which they had murdered Babu, the brother of Prabha,
and 'that the family members of the accused were being
threatened and due to this reason, all 'the accused with the
...
H common intention of committing the murder of Prabha, formed
MANI@ UDATTU MAN & ORS. V. STATE REP. BY 1215
INSPECTOR OF POLICE [DR. ARIJIT PASAYAT, J.]

.....
an unlawful assembles and armed with dangerous weapons like A
knife sword etc. on 9.3.2001 at 5.30 p.m stealthily entered the
house of Prabha at 10 Netaji lane, Nehru Nagar, Kodunkaiyoor,
knowing that Prabha was present. On seeing them, Prabha
escaped through the temple side, and all the accused chased
Prabha, and entered the compound of Sekhar's house situated B
near the tea stall situated nearly, and indiscriminately attacked
Prabha and caused injuries with the knife on the head, neck,
..; face, chest, shoulder, hands and legs of Prabha. Due to the
said injuries, Prabha died at the spot, and, therefore, it was
stated that he accused are gui.lty for offences under Sections c
147, 148 read with Section 302 IPC. When the accused were
produced before the X Judicial Magistrate, all the copies of the .
documents relating to the case were handed to them free of
charge. The matter was then committed to the Court of the
Sessions Judge. D
After hearing the arguments from both sides and
considering the documents and evidence, the accused were
charged under Section 148 read with Section 320 I PC and on
being questioned the accused pleaded not guilty and demanded
E
trial.
To establish the charge against the accused, the
prosecution, examined fifteen witnesses and exhibited P-1 to
i
P-28 and marked M.0.1 to M.0.16.

Placing reliance on the ev_idence of PW.1, the conviction · F
was recorded though PWs. 2 to 8 resiled from their statement
during investigation. Before the High Court the stand was that
since almost all the prosecution witnesses who were turned as
eye-witnesses did not support the prose.cution version, the
conviction should not have been recorded . G
..
Discarding this plea, the High Court noticed that the
evidence of PW1 was sufficient to hold all the persons guilty.
Accordingly, the appeals were dismissed. The stand taken
before the High Court was reiterated. The present appeal is by H

'~(
1216 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [2009] 2 s.c.R:

A A 1, A3, A4 and A 7. Learned counsel for the respondent
!-
supported the judgment of the trial C:ourt and the High Court.
4. It is the duty of Court to separate grain from chaff. Where
I-
chaff can be separated from grain, it would be open to the Court ~

to convict an accused notwithstanding the fact that evidence
B
has been found to be deficient, or to be note wholly credible.
Falsity of material particular would not ruin it from the beginning
to end. The maxim "falsus in uno falsus in omnibus" has no
application in India and the witness or witnesses can.not be .,.
branded as liar(s). The maxim "falsus in uno falsus in omnibus"
c has not received general acceptance nor has this maxini come
to occupy the status of rule of law. It is merely a rule of caution.
All that it amounts to, is that in such cases testimony may be
disregarded, and not that it must be disregarded. The doctrine
merely involves the question of weight of evidence which a Court
D may apply in a given set of circumstances, but it is not what may
be called 'a n:iandatory rule of evidence. (See Nisar Alli v. The :,l

State of Uttar Pradesh [AIR 1957 SC 366]. In a given case, it is
always open to a Court to differentiate accused who had been
acquitted from those who were convicted where there are a
E number of accused persons. (See Gurucharan Singh and Anr.
v. State of Punjab [AIR 1956 SC 460}. The doctrine is a
dangerous one specially in India for if a whol~ body of the
testimony were to be rejected, because witness was evidently
speaking an untruth in some aspect, it is to be feared that
..
F administration of criminal justice would come to a dead-stop.
Witnesses just cannot help in giving embroidery to a story,
how.ever, true in the main.Therefore, it has to be appraised in
each case as to what extent the evidence is worthy of
acceptance, and merely because in some· respects the Court
G
considers the same to be insufficient for placing reliance on the
testimony of a witness, it does not necessarily followas a matter
....
of law that it must be disregarded in all respect as well. The
eyidence has to be shifted with care. The aforesaid dictum is
not a sound rule forlhe reason that one hardly comes across a
witness whose evidence does not contain a grain of untruth or
H . . • , . jt
MANI @ UDATTU MAN & ORS. V STATE REP. BY 1217
INSPECTOR OF POLICE [DR. ARIJIT PASAYAT, J.]

at any rate exaggeration, embroideries or embellishment. (See A
Sohrab s/o Beli Nayata and Anr. v. The State of Madh~a
Pradesh [1972 (3) SCC 751] and Ugar Ahir and Ors. v. The
State of Bihar [AIR 1965 SC 277]. An attempt has to be made
to, as noted above, in terms of felicitous metaphor, separate
grain from the chaff, truth from falsehood. Where it is not feasible B
to separate truth from falsehood, because grain and chaff are
inextricably mixed up, and in the process of separation an
absolutely new case has to be reconstructed by divorcing
essential details presented by the prosecution completely from
the context and the background against which they are made, c
the only available course to be made is to discard the evidence
in toto. (See Zwinglee Ariel v. State of Madhya Pradesh [AIR
1954 SC 15] and Ba/aka Singh and Ors. v. The State of Punjab
[1975 (4) SCC 511). As observed by this Court in State of
Rajasthan v. Smt Kalki and Anr. [1981 (2) sec 752], normal 0
discrepancies in evidence are those which are due to normal
errors of observation, normal errors of memory due to lapse Qf
time, due to mental disposition such as shock and horror at the
time of occurrence and those are always there however honest
and truthful a witness may be. Material discrepancies are those E
which are not normal, and not expected of a normal person.
Courts have to label the category to which a discrepancy may
be categorized. While normal discrepancies do not corrode the
credibility of a party's case, material discrepancies do~{,. r'W~se
aspects were highlighted in Krishna Machi and Ors. .V~t3~e br
1 0

Bihar etc. [2002 (6) sec 81) and in Sµcha Singh J'·'sfiJYe- otF
Punjab [2003 (7) SCC 643]. It was further illuminated in the Zahira
H. Sheikh v. State of Gujarat [2004 (4) SCC 158], Ram Udgar
Singh v. State of Bihar [2004(10) SCC 443], Gor/e S. Naidu y.
State of Andhra Pradesh [2003 (12) SCC 449], Gubbala
Venugopalswamy v. State of Andhra Pradesh [2004 (10) SCC G
120] and in Syed lbahim v. State of A.P [2006 (10) SCC 601].
5. In the examination of PW1, it has been stated that on
8.3.2001, in the morning the accused armed with knives had
come and threatened to kill Prahha and that is· the night when
H·
1218 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [2009] 2 S.C.R.

A Prabha came. She told him that he should go and hide himself
and late on 09.03.2001 at 5.30A.M. in the morning, the accused
armed with knives came and on seeing them Prabha ran and ·
accused followed him and PW1 alongwith her daughter-in-law
PW2 followed and after running for some distance, A2 Ali and
B A 1 Mani cut the deceased on his head with the Kaif and A3
Cheyya, A4 Muthukumar and A6, Motilal Babu, AS, Jayaraman,
A7 Muhammed cut Prabha on the shoulder and other parts of
the body and A8 was holding Prabha by his legs, and these
facts appear to corroborate the contents of the complaint lodged
c by PW1 in the Police Station. The evidence of PW1 in the cross
examination that on 08.03.2001 the accused had come and
threatened Prabha and that when Prabha had come in the night
she had warned him and that the next day when the accused
came she shouted to Prabha to .escape and that she had
0 followed etc, when compared with the complaint, corroborates
it and strengthens the prosecution version. On examining Ex.P-
1 complaint it is evident that the evidence of PW1 that all the
accused are known to her and that all the accused were armed
with the M01 series knives. Therefore, on the basis of the
E evidence of PW1 being trustworthy and believable has been
rightly acted upon .
.,, 6" }Nith regard to the argument of the accused that, in the
m_~JCiAf.'-8ase of Babu the brother of deceased Pra.bha, the
ac¢M~s~~Pf/n the present case were also implicated and
F questfoned, and due to that PW1, the mother of Babu and
Prabha implicated the accused falsely in the present, case also
and that accused cannot be convicted on the basis of PW1 's
evidence. Merely because the accused were investigated in
the case of Babu, the evidence of PW1 cannot bedisregarded.
G In this context reference may be made to Balakram & Ors Vs.
State of UP. (AIR 1974 SC 2165) and Ushamubalu Sakdu
Vs. State of Maharashtra (AIR 1976 SC 557). It is seen from
the evidence of PW1 that PW1 's other son Babu had been killed
and the accused in the present case was implicated there also
H and were acquitted: PW1: has also stated that 5-6 months after

/

'
MANI @ UDATTU MAN & ORS. V. STATE REP. BY 1219
INSPECTOR OF POLICE [DR. ARIJIT PASAYAT, J.]
~
the death of Babu, her son Prabha was killed. On considering A
!. the evidence of PW1 that she knew the accused from their
childhood and that due to the enmity of the accused with her
children, they killed her sons and that on 8.3.2001 the accused
armed with knives came to her house and threatened to kill
Prabha and that she informed this to Prabha and that the next B
day, the accused came to her house, chased Prabha and killed
.,, her, it cannot be said that just because the accused were set
free in the case of Babu, PW1 has with the wrong intention
implicated the accused in the present case. In the first case
relied upon by the prosecution, it has been held that just because c
the eye witness to the incident is related to the deceased, the
evidence of the said eye witness cannot be disregarded. It is ·
seen from the decision of the second case that when the
evidence of the interested witnesses in corroborated by the ,
medical evidence, then the entire evidence of the interested
D
witnesses ought not be rejected on that ground.
7. We find no merit in the appeals filed by the accused-
appellant and accordingly, the appeals are dismissed.

N.J. Appeals dismissed .

•