LI Network
Published on: October 10, 2023 at 00:01 IST
The Gauhati High Court has declared that an intra-court writ appeal is not admissible against an order or judgment issued by a Single Judge Bench in the exercise of criminal writ jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution of India.
The division bench, comprising Chief Justice Sandeep Mehta and Justice Kardak Ete, has also urged that the court rules be amended to explicitly specify the inadmissibility of intra-court appeals in such cases.
The court’s verdict came in response to an intra-court appeal challenging an order dated June 08, 2023, issued by a single-judge bench in a criminal writ matter.
The petitioner in the writ petition had sought the quashing of an FIR and charges framed against them by the Trial Court under Sections 431 and 294 of the IPC, along with Section 3 of the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, 1984. However, the Single Judge had dismissed the petitioner’s writ petition.
Importantly, the Gauhati High Court Rules did not explicitly address whether an intra-court appeal was permissible against a Single Judge’s order in a criminal matter under Article 226 of the Indian Constitution.
The court referred to the Supreme Court’s ruling in the case of Ram Kishan Fauji v. State of Haryana & Ors (2017), which clarified that Letters Patent Appeal (LPA) was not admissible against a Single Judge’s order in criminal matters.
The Supreme Court emphasized that such appeals, similar to intra-court writ appeals, should not be entertained against orders issued by a Single Judge exercising criminal jurisdiction.
The appellant, who represented themselves, relied on several judgments, including State of Madhya Pradesh v. Visan Kumar Shiv Charan Lal, Surya Dev Rai v. Ram Chander Rai, and Dhariwal Tobacco Products Ltd v. State of Maharashtra, to argue in favor of entertaining this intra-court writ appeal.
However, the court pointed out that these judgments did not pertain to the specific issue of the maintainability of an intra-court writ appeal in criminal matters.
The court concluded that, based on the existing legal framework and the absence of specific provisions, an intra-court writ appeal does not lie against an order issued by a Single Judge in the exercise of criminal writ jurisdiction under Article 226. It recommended that the court rules be amended to explicitly state that no intra-court appeal is permitted in such cases.
As a result, the court dismissed the intra-court writ appeal filed by the appellant, deeming it not maintainable under the current legal framework.
Case Title: Shri Deba Prasad Dutta v. The State of Assam and Anr.
