Supreme Court: victim's appeal against magistrate acquittal lies before Sessions Court

The core issue was determining whether the High Court was correct in rejecting the appeal on maintainability grounds or if the appeal should have been filed before the Sessions Court.

Who it concerns: Petitioner: Subhas Chandra Sarkar (victim/father of the deceased); Respondents: The State of West Bengal & Ors.; Bench: Justices J. B. Pardiwala and K. Vinod Chandran.

What the court decided

• Rejected the Special Leave Petition.
• Upheld the High Court's order rejecting the appeal on maintainability grounds.
• Clarified that under the proviso to Section 413 of the BNSS, a victim's appeal against an acquittal by a Magistrate lies before the Sessions Court, not the High Court.
• Directed that if the petitioner files an appeal before the Jurisdictional Sessions Court within one month of this order, it shall be admitted and heard on merits without considering the delay caused by the bona fide proceedings.
• Rejected all pending applications.

Also in the document

• The Court explicitly stated it made no observations regarding the merits of the case or the Magistrate's acquittal order.
• The Court noted that the specific provision in Section 419 of the BNSS regarding appeals to the High Court does not apply when the proviso to Section 413 is invoked for a victim's appeal.
• The underlying offence was Section 304A read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, which is a bailable offence.