What is Revision under CrPC?

Introduction 

Criminal justice has effective impact on every human’s life but it has also led to some serious consequences on those individual’s life who have been convicted under the criminal law. One can assure that every organization or institution built by man is susceptible to certain imperfections and this very well applies to our Courts as well. It should be noted that Courts are the institutions known for dispensing justice to their people but it doesn’t mean that they might not make mistakes while doing so. Courts are equally prone to making mistakes, although they cannot afford to make frequent error as they are bearer of justice and equity. 

Thus, there are certain provisions added to Civil Procedure Code 1908 as well as Criminal Procedure Code 1973 so as to examine the decisions and orders passed by the lower courts, High Court to preclude and avoid any scope for miscarriage of Justice. As this aspect of judiciary was realized, provision of appeal, revision, review and reference were included in Criminal Procedure Code, so that the aggrieved party could approach the higher court for appeal or revision against their existing order or judgment from the lower court. These aspects are elaborately discussed under CrPC. 

As stated above, when the party is not satisfied with their judgment, the Court gives them the right to appeal in higher courts on certain grounds. But in certain cases, right to appeal is not given to the parties and instead the judgment can be either reviewed or revised by higher courts or some other delegated courts. The legislators kept this in mind while they brought in the concept of review procedure called Revision in the legislation so as to avoid the Judiciary from being completely tyrannical and preclude it from committing any miscarriage of justice especially for those cases where right to appeal has been barred by the Court and CrPC. Section 397 to 405 deals with the powers of Revision as granted to the Higher courts and the method or procedure to exercise these powers appropriately. It should be noted that these powers are wide-spread and discretionary by their nature.

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What is Revision?

Well, the term “revision” has not been defined under the CrPC 1973 but as per Section 397, it states that High Court or any Sessions Judge has been granted the power to call for or study the records for any proceeding in order to satisfy the following conditions- 

• To check the correctness, legality or propriety of any finding, sentence or order whether recorded or passed 
• To examine the regularity of any proceedings of an inferior court 

The High Court or Sessions Judge may also have the power to direct the execution of any sentence or any order in particular manner as is justified. These are not the only powers, but they may also exercise the power to direct the release of the accused on bail or on his own bond, if the accused is kept in confinement. Further, they might also order for an inquiry on subject to certain limitations and the main purpose behind granting of these powers to the appellant courts is to prevent any failure of justice at the hands of Court or judges. 

In the landmark judgment of Amit Kapoor v. Ramesh Chander & Anr. the Supreme Court of India held that, “the revisional jurisdiction can be invoked only when the impugned decisions are grossly erroneous and there has been no compliance to the provisions of law in those judgments and the findings recorded are based on no evidence, the material evidence is ignored or judicial discretion is exercised arbitrarily or perversely.” 

Supreme Court in another landmark judgment of State of Rajasthan v. Fatehkaran Mehdu, stated that “object of this provision was to set right a patent defect or any error of jurisdiction or law or the perversity which has crept in during the proceeding.” The High Court under these provisions also has the power to take up a revision petition on its own motion which is also known as Suo moto or on the petition of the aggrieved party. The Allahabad High Court in case of Gaffar v. State of UP, mentioned that “whenever the matter is brought before the notice of Court and the Court is convinced and satisfied that facts and circumstances of the case and the Court finds that it is apt for exercising the revisional suo moto powers of the Court, it can do so in order in the interest of justice.”

Grounds for revision 

There are certain grounds under which Revision can be filed in superior court by the aggrieved party for any judgment passed by the subordinate or lower courts especially in those cases where there is no appeal permitted by the subordinate courts. Revision is discretionary and supervisory power of the superior court but it doesn’t assure any statutory right to the aggrieved party unlike appeal provisions. The grounds for filing revision under civil and criminal case are different. They are-

● Civil Revision 

Section 115 of the CPC 1908 describes Revision in civil matters and prior to this provision, there was a term “case decided” in CPC used to refer the case for revision and post the Amendment Act 1976 in CPC, an explanation was added to Section 115 of the CPC which gave a description of what all was included in “case decided”. It includes any order issues, or any order that resolves an issue, and in the course of a lawsuit or any other proceeding. It is to be noted that only High Court has the power to pass a stay order with respect to any suit or other proceeding for revision purposes. As per Section 115 of the Code, the conditions for revision are mentioned below- 

1. When subordinate court exercises a jurisdiction, i.e., not vested in it by law 
2. When subordinate court fails to exercise its rightful jurisdiction as vested in it by Law 
3. The subordinate court acts illegally or with material irregularity while exercising its own jurisdiction  

● Criminal Revision 

Revision is well explained for criminal matters from Section 397 to 405 and under criminal jurisdiction, revision can be exercised by High Court as well as Sessions Judge. According to Section 397 of CrPC, revision petition can be filed to check the irregularity or correctness of any particular finding, order or sentence passed by any lower court, then the Court might call for such record or finding or the Court may direct the execution of any sentence or order to be suspended and if the accused is behind the bars then the accused can be released on bond by the Court while the examination of such bond is pending in the Court. But there are certain exceptions to this discretionary power of the Court. They are- 

• The power of revision shall not be exercised in case of interlocutory or interim order passed in appeal, inquiry, trial or other proceedings. 
• The High Court or Sessions Judge shall not interest an application for revision by a person who has previously applied for the same in either of them. 

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Limitation Imposed On High Court – 

There are certain statutory limitations imposed on the High Court for exercising its revisional powers as given under Section 401 of the CrPC, but the only requirement which is essential for exercising this power is to present or furnish the records of the proceedings before the Court, and after examining the records of the case it relies on the discretion of Court on the following basis- 

• That an accused should be given due opportunity of being heard or an order cannot be passed unless this procedure is followed 
• An application of revision cannot be proceeded further in cases where the party who applied for revision could have gone for appeal but didn’t do so. 

The High Court shall have the power to call for any record of any proceeding of any inferior criminal court which comes under its jurisdiction in order to establish the correctness, legality of propriety of any finding, sentence etc and the Sessions Judge would examine the question with regard to inadequacy of sentence in view of the powers conferred to him under Section 397(1) of CrPC. 

The major difference between powers granted to the High Court and Sessions court or Sessions Judge, is that revisional powers can be exercised only by the Sessions Judge himself whereas in case of High Court the power to take up a revisional petition lies with the Court or whenever it is brought to the knowledge of High Court. Apart from that, the powers exercised by Sessions Judge and High Court while dealing with revisional matters is same. In the case of S Balasubramanian v. the State of Tamil Nadu, the High Court of Madras ordered that “a Sessions Judge has the power to entertain an application in revision against the sentence passed and eventually enhance the sentence in revision in certain matters.” 

Even in the case of Alamgir v State of Bihar, the Apex Court has spoken of the same fact, that in respect of enhancement of sentence in revision, it can be done by the Court only if the Court was satisfied and believed that sentence imposed by the trial Court is excessively lenient, or that in passing the order of sentence, the trial court has failed to look into the relevant facts of the case.”

Limitation Period

As per Section 131 of the Limitation Act, it mentions that criminal revision, if the party wishes to file, it has to be filed by the aggrieved party within 90 days from the decree or order passed. Further, section 50 of the Act mentions that the Court can allow criminal revision application after the expiry of limitation period also if sufficient cause or reason is given for condonation of delay in filing the revision petition. 

In the known judgment of Salekh Chand v. Sh. Deepak Sharma, the Sessions court decided that period of limitation will be from the date of knowledge of the questioned or impugned order by the revisionist. For example, if the party applying for revision got knowledge of receipt of summons on 8/11/2013 and filed the petition on 23/1/2014 while the actual date of impugned order was 5/9/2013, so the petition will be allowed as the order came into revisionist knowledge later on 8/11/2013. 

Suo Moto Power under Revision –

Suo moto power of the Court, means that the Court has been vested the power to act on its own consensus or decision even if no parties have approached the Court for further revision of the judgment. The suo moto power is not just exercised by Higher courts but even the smaller courts can exercise the suo moto revisional power for the upkeep of justice in civil matters within their jurisdiction. If the matter involves greater public interest then the High Court shall also take the suo moto jurisdiction of that case for exercising its revisional powers. 

In case of Municipal Corporation of Delhi v. Girdharilal Sapuru, it was rightly held by the High Court that a revision cannot be dismissed by High Court just on the grounds of technical limitations and instead the court should exercise Suo moto power of revision in such cases for avoiding any further illegality or miscarriage in the petition. However, it has to be noted that criminal matters don’t permit suo moto power to be extended to convert revision petition into an appeal against the acquittal and then convict the alleged person. But the High Court may set aside the order of acquittal and the trails can be remitted. 

Procedure for Revision

The procedure or manner for filing a Revision petition is not that difficult. Even the court has the power to initiate revisional power via Suo Moto or if an application is filed by the aggrieved party within the set limitation period. But it has to be known that a Court may exercise revisional jurisdiction only when the subordinate court has failed to exercise its rightful jurisdiction or has misused or extended its power of jurisdiction. Once the petition is examined and allowed at the discretion of the Court (it is probable that the petition might be rejected also), then the jurisdictional error is corrected and the order is revised and the reasons for revision are taken into consideration. In case of civil proceedings for revision, the case doesn’t get reduced by the death of the applicant and the order is eventually transferred in the name of legal representative of the applicant.

Conclusion –

Thus, it can be inferred that revisional powers are granted to the Court for correcting any jurisdictional error or mistake or in case there is any gross miscarriage of justice by any subordinate court while exercising their jurisdiction. These revision powers are given to higher courts but it is still not guaranteed that the revision petition will be accepted by the higher courts. It should also be concluded that revisional power cannot be exercised by the High Court for those cases which are appealed in High Court itself. 

The best feature of revisional matters is that the even the smaller courts can exercise the suo moto revisional powers where the matter is in public interest and one prime thing should be noted that in civil matters, interlocutory orders come within the purview of revision but in case of criminal matters, interlocutory order which affects the rights of party or any specific aspect of the case will only come under the purview of revision. 

-This article has been authored by Rhea Banerjee, Pursuing B.A.LL.B from Indore Institute of Law

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Refer – Code of Criminal Procedure