In Brief
Sham Lal was accused of the dowry death of his wife Usha and their child in 1992. While the trial court acquitted him, the High Court reversed the acquittal and convicted him under IPC sections 304-B (dowry death) and 498-A (cruelty) for seven years imprisonment. The Supreme Court set aside the conviction, holding that the High Court erred in reversing the acquittal without justification. The trial court's careful findings—that the prosecution failed to prove the dowry demand or payment and lacked evidence of cruelty—were sound and not perverse. The Court reaffirmed that possibility of another view cannot overturn an acquittal unless it is wholly unsustainable.
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