By IANS,
New Delhi, : The Supreme Court has held that the consequences of an offence committed by a person or some people in an unlawful assembly would not visit everyone arrayed as accused on the grounds of the “common object”.
An apex court bench of Justice P. Sathasivam and Justice H.L. Gokhale in their judgment Monday said that “before convicting an accused with the aid of Section 149 IPC, the court must give clear findings regarding the nature of the common object and that the object was unlawful”.
Speaking for the bench Justice Sathasivam said: “In the absence of such finding as also any overt act on the part of the accused persons, the mere fact that they were armed would not be sufficient to prove common object.”
The judgment said: “Whenever the court convicts any person or persons of an offence with the aid of Section 149, a clear finding regarding the common object of the assembly must be given and the evidence discussed must show not only the nature of common object but also that the object was unlawful.”
The decision came in a Bihar murder case in which seven convicts were set free by the apex court. The seven convicts were carrying arms when they accompanied the murderer to the crime spot in April 1997.