High Court of Punjab and HaryanaCRA-D/122/2024dismissed

Navish Kumar @ Navi v. State Of Punjab

2024-12-20Mr. Justice Sureshwar Thakur,Mr. Justice Kuldeep Tiwari22 pages

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(1) Notwithstanding anything contained in the Code, an appeal shall lie from any judgment, sentence or order, not being an interlocutory order, of a Special Court to the High Court both on facts and on law.

(2) Every appeal under sub#section(1)shall be heard by a bench of two Judges of the High Court and shall, as far as possible, be disposed of within a period of three months from the date of admission of the appeal.

(3) Except as aforesaid, no appeal or revision shall lie to any court from any judgment, sentence or order including an interlocutory order of a Special Court.

(4) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub#section(3) of section 378 of the Code, an appeal shall lie to the High Court against an order of the Special Court granting or refusing bail.

(5) Every appeal under this section shall be preferred within a period of thirty days from the date of the judgment, sentence or order appealed from:

Provided that the High Court may entertain an appeal after the expiry of the said period of thirty days if it is satisfied that the appellant had sufficient cause for not preferring the appeal within the period of thirty days:

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23. Thus, in a case of this nature, where a provision in the procedural law has the effect of extinguishing a fundamental right, we may read down the

, provision. If the petitioner/appellant is denied his right of appeal in spite of showing sufficient cause for the delay in filing the appeal, it would be denying his fundamental right, which cannot be permitted by any Court much less a Constitutional Court. Therefore, we are of the view that the 2 nd proviso to Section 21(5) of the NIA Act,

The appeal challenging the judgment of conviction and the appeal challenging rejection of bail, in our view, are filed in exercise of one's fundamental right. The other appeal that we can think of which would involve the fundamental right of an accused is against an order cancelling his bail. Therefore, in those types of appeals, which are filed with a delay, the word 'shall', shall be read as 'may'.

24. As stated earlier, we are doing so notwithstanding that there is no challenge to these provisions, firstly, because the Hon'ble Supreme Court in Kailash's case [cited supra] read down a provision relating to the restriction of filing the written statement beyond the period of 90 days and also because the fundamental right of a citizen cannot be denied by a procedural law, which has to be treated only as handmaid of justice and not its mistress. To quote once again the observations of Justice Krishna Iyer, it can only be a lubricant and not a resistant in the administration of justice, more so in a case where the procedure itself has the effect of extinguishing a fundamental right.

25. However, we make it clear that we cannot hold that the word, 'shall' shall be read as 'may' in case of an appeal filed against any other order other than what is mentioned in paragraph No.23 of this order, unless there is a challenge to Section 21(5) of the NIA Act.

26. Therefore, we are of the view that in the instant case,

and since the petitioner/appellant has shown sufficient cause, the delay of 43 days in preferring the appeal is condoned. The Criminal Miscellaneous Petition stands allowed. ! (' '

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Thus, the judgment in Buhari @ Kichan Buhari's case denuded to lose its status as precedent in the matter of condoning the delay in preferring appeals under Section 21(5) of the NIA Act. Further, the High Court is not empowered to condone the delay beyond the permissible limit contemplated under Section 21(5) of the NIA Act.

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, ( --. Consequently, the Criminal Appeals on hand stand dismissed on the ground of limitation. However, dismissal of the present criminal appeals under Section 21(5) of the NIA Act would not be a bar for an aggrieved person to approach the Trial Court, if it is otherwise permissible under law.

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since the office has given the note the appeal to be not maintainable in view of the fact that the appeal has been filed beyond the period of 90 days, as such, the issue which requires consideration as to whether the provision as contained under Section 21(5) of the Act, 2008 is mandatory or directory xxxx xxxx

40. Section 21(5) contains two provisos;

"the first proviso confers power upon the High Court with the word that the High Court may entertain an appeal after the expiry of the said period of thirty days if it is satisfied that the appellant had sufficient cause for not preferring appeal within the period of thirty days".

The second proviso is very specific which provides "that no appeal shall be entertained after the expiry of the period of 90 days".

51. The second proviso stipulates that the appellate court shall not entertain an appeal beyond the period of 90 days

72. This Court, taking into consideration the very object and intent of the Act and reading it together with both the proviso of Section 21(5), is of the view

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Right to appeal for protection of a right guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution of India is concomitantly an essential part of right to fair trial and one of the basic structure of our Constitution. The bar contemplated under the second proviso appended to Section 21 (5) of the Act, 2008, according to the State, is intended to oust the jurisdiction of this Court by the Damocles sword of delay, however the said deprivation of a fundamental right juxtaposed to law of limitation is the larger question of public importance that has surfaced before this Court in the present appeal.

It is true that the right to life and personal liberty as embodied under Article 21 of the Constitution of India conferred to the citizenry is fundamental but the security of the State is of equal paramount significance. xxxx - (

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18. It is thus clear to us that the presence of statutory restrictions like Section 43−D (5) of UAPA per−se does not oust the ability of Constitutional Courts to grant bail on grounds of violation of Part III of the Constitution. Indeed, both the restrictions under a Statue as well as the powers exercisable under Constitutional Jurisdiction can be well harmonised. Whereas at commencement of proceedings, the Courts are expected to appreciate the legislative policy against grant of bail but the rigours of such provisions will melt down where there is no likelihood of trial being completed within a reasonable time and the period of incarceration already undergone has exceeded a substantial part of the prescribed sentence. Such an approach would safeguard against the possibility of provisions like Section 43−D (5) of UAPA being used as the sole metric for denial of bail or for wholesale breach of constitutional right to speedy trial. $

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* Until an authoritative view is pronounced by the Supreme Court of India, the order passed by this Court on 4.4.2023 in our considered opinion, is the good law.

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