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Joseph Stephen and others vs Santhanasamy and others

Criminal Appeal · 2022 INSC 96Decided 25 Jan 2022
Criminal Appeal Nos. 90-93 of 2022
M.R. Shah · Sanjiv Khanna

Background

The accused (original accused nos. 6 to 8) were convicted by a trial court, then acquitted on appeal by the first appellate court. The victims did not file a statutory appeal against that acquittal but instead filed a criminal revision petition before the Madras High Court. The High Court, exercising its revisional powers under Section 401 CrPC, reversed the acquittal and directly convicted the accused. The accused challenged this before the Supreme Court, arguing that a revisional court has no power to convert an acquittal into a conviction.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that Section 401(3) CrPC expressly bars a High Court, while exercising revisional jurisdiction, from converting a finding of acquittal into one of conviction, even if it finds manifest illegality in the acquittal, the High Court's only options are to order a retrial or direct the appellate court to rehear the appeal. The Court also held that since the victims had a statutory right of appeal against acquittal under the proviso to Section 372 CrPC, a revision was not the correct remedy in the first place (Section 401(4) CrPC bars revision where an appeal lies and was not filed), though the High Court could have used its power under Section 401(5) to treat the revision as an appeal, provided it explicitly recorded satisfaction that this was necessary in the interest of justice. Finding neither had been properly done, the Court quashed the High Court's conviction order and remitted the matter, directing the High Court to treat the revision applications as appeals under Section 372 CrPC and decide them afresh on merits.

Lesson Learnt

A High Court cannot use its revisional powers to flip an acquittal directly into a conviction: that route is legally barred; and a crime victim seeking to challenge an acquittal must use the statutory right of appeal under Section 372 CrPC rather than file a revision petition.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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