New Delhi: The Supreme Court has held that in criminal cases an accused can be convicted only on clear evidence which is beyond reasonable doubt and not on mere probabilities.

"In criminal cases, conviction can be sustained only when there is clear evidence beyond reasonable doubt. The accused cannot be convicted on the ground that in all probabilities the accused may have committed the crime. The approach of the High Court is wholly fallacious and unsustainable in law," a bench of Justices Dalveer Bhandari and B S Chauhan, said in a judgement.

The apex court passed the judgement while reversing the conviction of a man and his father for the alleged dowry death of the former's wife Mangayarkarasi who committed suicide by hanging herself at her matrimonial house on March 15, 1989, in Tamil Nadu's Periyar district.