The Rajasthan High Court set aside an order that treated a complainant's appeal against acquittal as abated on her death. Her legal heirs fall within the definition of 'victim' in Section 2(wa) CrPC and may seek leave to continue the appeal filed under the proviso to Section 372 (paras 20-21). The Court also observed that Section 394 CrPC lets relatives of a dead convict continue an appeal but gives a victim's heirs no such right, and sent its order to the Law Commission (paras 22-24).
The Rajasthan High Court acquitted a Patwari convicted of taking a ₹3,500 bribe, holding that a Section 65B certificate produced more than six years after the recordings were prepared, on the day an ACB officer deposed, could not make the electronic evidence admissible (paras 10.2, 10.12). With the complainant hostile, no work pending with the appellant and the money recovered from the ground, demand and acceptance were not proved (paras 7-9, 12). The Court suggested that the ACB require same-day certificates (para 14).
The Rajasthan High Court struck out the words "in absence of evidence" from the acquittal of two unmarried sisters-in-law in a matrimonial cruelty case and declared them honourably acquitted (para 16). Where the prosecution has miserably failed after full consideration of its evidence, the accused can be said to be "honourably acquitted", and labels such as "benefit of doubt" or "in absence of evidence" would affect their careers (paras 13-15).
The Rajasthan High Court quashed, qua the petitioner, all proceedings arising from a 2004 theft FIR in which he was never named. The seven persons charge-sheeted had been acquitted in 2012, no fresh material had surfaced, and nothing was done even after he obtained anticipatory bail in 2020 (paras 4, 4.12). Keeping coercive action alive indefinitely, without progress or material, is manifestly arbitrary and violates the right to speedy justice under Article 21 (para 4.11).
The Rajasthan High Court set aside a Kota Chief Judicial Magistrate's refusal to issue a no-objection certificate for passport renewal to an accused facing 23 criminal cases, none ending in conviction. Stopping renewal, and so travel abroad, merely because criminal cases are pending violates Article 21, it held, and the passport authority must decide a fresh renewal application under Section 5 of the Passports Act within 30 days (paras 10-11).
The Rajasthan High Court allowed a cheque-bounce accused, who had denied signing the cheque ever since the legal notice, to have the signature examined by a handwriting expert at the Forensic Science Laboratory. Because Section 139 of the Negotiable Instruments Act shifts the burden to the accused, his right to a fair trial and to lead defence evidence deserves stronger protection (paras 13-14). Following Kalyani Baskar, the Magistrate's refusal was quashed (para 17).
Dismissing a State appeal pending since 1996, the Rajasthan High Court upheld the acquittal of two men charged with possessing and supplying opium. The trial court's findings rested on material contradictions, procedural lapses and evidentiary deficiencies, and its view was plausible; given the stringent NDPS Act and its mandatory safeguards, the prosecution had not proved its case with the required certainty (paras 6-7).
A Division Bench of the Rajasthan High Court upheld a Single Judge's cancellation of the Rajasthan Police Sub-Inspector/Platoon Commander Examination, 2021, dismissing 17 appeals, including the State's (para 117). Paper leaks through organised gangs and RPSC members, dummy candidates and missing safeguards showed a systemic breach, and two years of investigation had not separated tainted from untainted candidates (paras 95-108). Clearing the physical test and interview did not save selected candidates (paras 109-110).
The Rajasthan High Court refused anticipatory bail to a Dubai-based man whom the State accuses of running a 'digital arrest' fraud that took Rs 80 lakh from an 83-year-old woman (paras 7-8, 16). A compromise signed by his father, not by him, could not help, because organised cyber fraud affects society at large (para 15). Using its inherent powers, the Court told the trial court to consider releasing the Rs 13.40 lakh recovered to the complainant within seven days of her application (para 18).
A Division Bench of the Rajasthan High Court held that the State's notification of 12.01.2023, placing the transgender community at serial No. 92 of the OBC list, falls short of the Supreme Court's direction in NALSA to extend all kinds of reservation, because it has benefited no transgender person (paras 20, 31). Treating a separate quota as a policy matter, the Court ordered a Committee study and, meanwhile, 3% additional weightage in State selections and admissions (paras 33-37).
The Rajasthan High Court granted regular bail to two men accused of cutting open an SBI ATM in Didwana-Kuchaman with a gas cutter, holding that pending criminal cases alone do not justify refusing bail (para 8). Treating community service under the new criminal laws as a reformative tool, it required each applicant to plant at least five trees a day for 30 days (para 63), and directed the State to frame an action plan and SOP for rehabilitating offenders (paras 49-50).
The Rajasthan High Court held that freezing a bank account during an investigation is an extraordinary measure, to be used sparingly and only on recorded reasons showing a "live, proximate and direct nexus" between the account and the alleged crime (paras 5.1-5.2). As the FIR put the disputed sum at about ₹30 crores, freezing the petitioners' entire accounts was disproportionate (paras 5-6). The Court kept ₹30 crores frozen and allowed the accounts to operate for all other lawful transactions (para 9).