9911796707
TMI Blog1997 (1) TMI 529X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ment to sell her land (which indicated that she had received ₹ 20,000/- and not the power of attorney as she was given to under stand. According to the first respondent, when the appellants came to her house on April 15 1989 and demanded money purported to have been spent by the first appellant in the litigation and wanted her to execute the sale deed in her favour, she made enquiries and came to know that the first appellant had played fraud upon her with dishonest intention to cheat her and obtained her signatures on the purported agreement to sell dated September 13, 1986, consequently, She lodged a complaint with the police on April 24, 1989 and the crime came to registered as Crime No. 31 of 1989 under Section 420 and 406 IPC, The Sub-Inspector after investigation submitted a report stating that the case was essentially of civil nature and no criminal case was made out. There upon the first respondent feeling aggrieved, brought the matter to the notice of superintendent of Police, Madurai and requested him to assign the same to another officer to make an honest investigation. Accordingly, the Inspector of Police, Crime Branch was entrusted with the investigation after th ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... l Rai & Ors [JT 1995 (7) SC 175]. The question therefore, is; whether the high court has power to entertain a Revision under section 397 (10 in respect of which the sessions judge has already exercised revisional power and whether under the circumstances of the present case, it could be considered to be one under section 482 of the Code? Chapter XXX of the code relating to reference and revisional powers of the High courts, consists of the Section 395 to 405 Under the codes, the revisional power of the High Court has concurrently been given by operation of sub-section (1) of section 397 to Sessions judge, to call for the records of any proceeding and to exercise powers of revision . The power is given to examine the record of any proceedings before nay inferior Criminal Court situated within its or his local jurisdiction for the purpose of satisfying itself or himself as to the correctness, legality or propriety of any finding, sentence , or order, recorded or passed, and as to the regularity of any proceeding of such inferior Court. Sub-Section (3) thereof provided that if an application under the said section has been made by any person either to the high court or to the Session ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... s as also suo motu power under section 401 to exercise the revisional power on the grounds mentioned therein, i.e. to examine the Correctness, legality or propriety of any finding sentence or order, recorded or passed and as to the regularity of any proceedings of such inferior court, and to dispose of the revision in the manner indicated under section 401 of the Code. The revisional. power of the high Court merely conserves the power of the high Court to see that justice is done is accordance with the recognised rules of criminal jurisprudence and that its subordinates courts do not exceed the jurisdiction or abuse the power vested in them under the code or to prevent abuse of the process of the inferior criminal courts or to prevent miscarriage of justice. The object of Section 483 and the purpose behind conferring the revisional power under section 397 read with section 401 upon the High court is to invest continuous supervisory jurisdiction so as to prevent miscarriage of justice or to correct irregularity of the procedure or to met out justice or to correct irregularity of the procedure or to met out justice. In addition, the inherent power of the High Court is preserved by S ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ld not apply when the state seek s revision under section 401 . So the state is not prohibited to avail the revisional power of the high Court under section 397 (1) read with section 401 of the code. Ordinarily, when revision has been barred by Section 397(3) of the Code, a person accused/complainant - cannot be allowed to take recourse to the revision to the High Court under Section 397 (1) or under inherent power of the High Court under Section 482 of the Code since it may amount to circumvention of the provisions of Section 397 (3) or section 397(2) of the Code. It is seen that the High Court has suo motu power under Section 401 and continuous supervisory jurisdiction under Section 483 of the Code. So, when the High Court on examination of the record finds that there is grave miscarriage of justice or abuse of process of the courts or the required statutory procedure has not been complied with or there is failure of justice or order passed or sentence imposed by the Magistrate requires correction, it is but the duty of the High Court to have it corrected at the inception lest grave miscarriage of justice would ensue. It is, therefore, to meet the ends of justice or to prevent a ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... inability, this Court held that power of the High Court to entertain the revision was not taken away under Section 397 or inherent power under Section 482 of the Code. In V.C. Shukla V/s. State through C.B.I. (1980) 2 SCR 380 at 393], a four-Judge Bench per majority had held that sub-section (3) of Section 397, however, does not limit at all the inherent powers of the High Court contained in Section 482. It merely curbs the revisional power given to the High Court or the Session Court under Section 397 (1) of the Code. In Rajan Kumar Manchanda case (supra), the case relating to release of a truck from attachment, obviously on filing of an interlocutory application. It was contended that there was prohibition on the revision by operation of Section 397 (2) of the Code. In that context it was held that it was not revisable under section 482 in exercise of inherent powers by operation of sub-section (3) of Section 397. On the facts in that case, it was held that by virtue of provisions contained in section 397 (3), the revision is not maintainable. In Dharam Pal case (supra) which related to the exercise of power to issue an order of attachment under Section 146 of the Code, it was h ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... t. The question whether the High Court could was right in reviewing its order. In that factual backdrop, this Court held that the High Court could not exercise inherent power for the second time. The ration therein as stated above, has no application to the facts in this case. In view of the above discussion, we hold that through the revision before the High Court under sub-section (1) of Section 397 is prohibited by sub-section (3) thereof, inherent power of the High Court is still available under Section 482 of the Code and as it is paramount power of continuous superintendence of the High Court under Section 483, the High is justified in interfering with the order leading to miscarriage of justice and in setting aside the order of the courts below. It remitted the case to the Magistrate for decision on merits after consideration of the evidence. We make it clear that we have not gone into the merits of the case. Since the High Court has left the matter to be considered by the Magistrate, it would be in appropriate at this stage to go into that question. We have only considered the issue of power and jurisdiction of the High Court in the in the context of the revisional power un ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
|
