The Supreme Court has ruled that high courts cannot order acquittal of accused persons in the event of destruction of trial court records and said the only course open for the appellate court was to order reconstruction of the records. This ruling was given recently by a bench comprising Justice Doraiswamy Raju and Justice Arijit Pasayat while setting aside an Allahabad High Court judgement directing that the accused persons, convicted in a murder case 25 years ago, should not be arrested as orders for reconstruction of the trial court records had gone unheeded. Justice Pasayat, allowing an appeal filed by the Uttar Pradesh government, said: ‘‘It has been the consistent view of several high courts that when records are destroyed by fire or on account of natural or unnatural calamities, reconstruction should be ordered.’’ Saying it was obligatory for appellate courts to obtain and examine the trial court records at the time of hearing of appeals, the apex court said when the trial court records were not available due to their destruction, ‘‘the only available course was a direction for reconstruction.’’
