CHAPTER XVI

Appeals and Revision Applications of Courts other than the High Court

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1. Joint appeals or applications – Several persons complaining of an order or

judgment in a criminal case affecting them all may join in one appeal or application for

revision, and one copy of the judgment or order complained of shall be sufficient. The

Appellate Court may, however, require separate petitions to be made by petitioners

whose case are, in its opinion, conflicting. Where a joint petition is allowed, one Court

fee and one Vakalatnama shall be sufficient.

2. Computation of the period of limitation. ­ Attention is invited to sub­section (2)

of Section 12 of the Limitation Act, 1963, which provides that in computing the period of

limitation for an appeal or an application for leave to appeal or for revision or for review

of a judgment, the day on which the judgment complained of was pronounced and the

time requisite, for obtaining a copy of the sentence or order appealed from or sought to be

revised or reviewed shall be excluded.

Attention is also invited to Paragraph 1 of Chapter XXI of the Criminal Mannual,

1980, which permits a party to apply for certified copies by post.

Where a party applies for certified copy by post other than registered post, the

date of its receipt by the office of the Court would be the date of the presentation of the

application. Wherever such application is made by registered post, the same shall be pre­

paid for acknowledgment and the date of posting of the letter would be the date of

presentation of the application to the court.

 Salient provisions as regards appeals and Revision Applications

3. (i) Under Section 374 (20 and (3) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 an

appeal against conviction and sentence of imprisonment for not more than seven years

liew to the Court of Sessions.

(ii) Under Section 384(c) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 an appeal of

the convict in jail presented to and forwarded by the jail authorities to the Appellate

Court under Section 383 shall not be dismissed summarily until the period allowed for

preferring such appeal has expired.

(iii) Under sub­section (2) of Section 397, the powers of revision conferred under

Section 397(1) shall not be exercised for the purpose of passing any order in regard to the

interlocutory order passed in any appeal, inquiry, trial or other proceedings.'

(iv) If an application for revision has been made by any person either to the High

Court or to the Court of Sessions, no other application for revision made by the same

person shall be entertained by the other Court to which no such application for revision

was made earlier. In order to ensure that no such application for revision was made to any

Court earlier, every applicant shall be asked to make a statement in his application for

revision that he had not filed a similar revision application in any Court previously in the

matter.

(v) Under Section 399(2) read with 401(4) of the Code of Criminal Procedure,

1973, the Revision Applications shall not be entertained at the instance of the party who

did not bring in an appeal though he could have preferred one under the Code of Criminal

Procedure, 1973, except in the circumstances mentioned in Section 401(5) when the

Sessions Court may treat the revision application as an appeal and deal with the same

accordingly.

(vi) Under Section 377(1) read with Section 386(c) of the Code of Criminal
Procedure, 1973 an appeal for enhancement of sentence lies only to the High Court on the

ground of its inadequacy. However, under Section 399(1) read with Section, 401(1) of the

Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, the Sessions Judge in a suo­motu examination of the

record may exercise the powers of enhancement of the sentence under Section 386 (c).

4. Grounds of appeal and list of articles to be included in the Paper Book ­

Unless otherwise ordered by the Court, the gourds of appeal and a copy of the list

of articles produced in the Court shall be included in the Paper Book prepared in an

appeal before the Sessions Court.

5. Acceptance of appeal without copy of judgment – When owing to the

proceedings of a Magistrate having been sent to the High Court or to sessions Judge, it is

impossible for an appellant to obtain a copy of the Judgment, the Court to which an

appeal has been made should accept the petition of appeal, though not accompanied by a

copy of the Judgment as required by law. The Court should then immediately write to the

High Court or to the Sessions Judge, as the case may be, stating that an appeal has been

made and ask for the return of the record and proceedings.

6. Bail before Nazir – Whenever the Court of Session directs any person to be

released on bail, the Sessions Court shall order such bail be given before the Nazir of the

District Court or before such Magistrate as the Court may think most convenient.

7. Contents of Judgment – The Judgment of the Appellate Court should contain the

points for determination, the decision thereon and the reason for the decision (Section

387 read with Section 354 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973)
8. Transmission of appellate judgment to the Trial Court – The Court deciding

an appeal or revision shall transmit a copy of its judgment to the Magistrate against

whose decision the appeal or revision was preferred, or to his successor in office.

In important cases, when the Magistrate, whose decision was appealed from or

against whose decision the revision was preferred has been transferred to another station

he should also personally be furnished with a copy of the judgment in the appeal or

revision.

9. Paper Book – As soon as the record of a case under appeal or revision is received

by a Sessions Court from the Trial Court, the Record Keeper will arrange to get the

necessary number of paper books prepared by the Section Writers or Clerks working

under him.

10. The paper book shall contain Clearly readable xerox or typed copies of the

following :­

(i) The dairy of Proceedings.

(ii) List of property

(iii) The complaint (if any) or its English translation and the charge.

(iv) Depositions in English

(v) Statements of the accused including written statements, if any

(vi) The judgment or order appealed from or sought to the revised.

(vii) Grounds of appeal or revision.

Viii) Such other documents as the Sessions Judge by special or general order may

direct to be included.
 To each copy of the paper book should be prefixed an index in the following form :­

INDEX

Serial No. Particulars Exhibit No. Page.

1 2 3 4

11. Care should be taken to see that the copies are accurately made and that there is

no unnecessary increase in the bulk of the record by including pages which are pratically

blank or otherwise.

12. The copies of the translations should be initialed as correct by the typist and the

person translating the document (if any) and the Record Keeper.

13. The typed copies should bear their own independent paging and not he paging of

the original record and the lines on every page should be numbered by the multiples of

five as 5, 10, 15 and so on.

14. Ordinarily, 3 copies of paper books should be prepared in all cases, one for the

use of the Court one for the use of the Public Prosecutor and one for the use of the

accused or the opponent, as the case may be. The Sessions Judge may order more in any

particular case.

15. The Copies shall be supplied to the Public Prosecutor free of cost. The copies

supplied to the accused and other parties shall be charged at the rates mentioned in

paragraph 16 below:
 Provided that, if the defense of the accused in any case is arranged at the expense

of the Government, a copy of the paper books shall be supplied free of cost to the lawyer

or to each of the lawyers appointed at Government cost in such a case and that if after the

appointment of such legal practitioner the accused appoints another lawyer, the copies

already prepared and given to the lawyer appointed by the Court at Government cost may

not be made available to the lawyer privately appointed by the accused except upon

payment of the charges prescribed in paragraph 16 below :­

Provided further that the Court may, if in its opinion, the party is too poor to pay

the cost of the paper book, order that a copy of the paper book should be supplied to such

party free of cost.

16. The copies of the paper book to be supplied to the accused or any party to the

proceedings or his lawyers on payment shall be charged at the rate of 6 p. per 100 words

or part thereof in addition to the cost of the paper which shall be 2 p. for each sheet of

foolscap size.

17. If any of the accused or parties to a proceeding desire that more than th number of

copies prescribed in paragraph 15 above be prepared and supplied to him or them

separately, he or they shall give intimation in that behalf to the Record Keeper before the

expiry of one week from the receipt of the Record and Proceedings of the case from the

Lower Court in the Sessions Court or such other further time as may be allowed by the

Sessions Court and shall also deposit an amount or amounts sufficient to meet the costs

of such extra copy or copies as may be determined by the Record Keeper. The Record

Keeper shall thereafter arrange to supply such extra copy or copies each of which shall be

charged as provided for in the foregoing paragraph. If the actual cost exceeds the amount
of deposit, the party or parties concerned shall make good the deficit and if any balance is

left over from the deposit after meeting the charges of copies supplied, the same shall be

refunded to the party or the parties concerned.

18. Where there are several accused or opponents concerned and arrangements have

not been made with the office as provided in paragraph 17 above for extra copies, the

accused or opponent first applying shall be entitled to get the copy reserved for him as

mentioned in paragraph 15 on payment of the charges prescribed in paragraph 16. The

rest of the accused or opponents shall make their own arrangements for getting copies

pre­pared for themselves

19. The orders in regard to the procedure relating to appeals against acquittals,

contained in para 18(1) to (8) of Chapter XVII of Criminal Manual, should apply mutatis

mutandis to applications for enhancement of sentences under Section 399 of the Code of

Criminal Procedure, 1973.