REVISION

(Ss.397 – 401)

BRIEF OUTLINE

S.397 – CALL FOR RECORDS.

 Scope of Power
 Locus Standi
 Bail
 Interlocutory Orders
 Concurrent Jurisdiction
 Ouster of High Court’s Jurisdiction
 Circumstances

S.398 – FURTHER ENQUIRY.

 Scope
 Concurrent Jurisdiction
 Power of Chief Judicial Magistrate
 Further Enquiry
 Opportunity of Showing Cause

S.399 – 400 – POWERS OF SESSIONS JUDGE, ADDITIONAL SESSIONS JUDGE.

 Scope of Powers
 Locus Standi
 Concurrent Jurisdiction
 Limitations
 Power of Additional Sessions Judge

S.401 – POWERS OF HIGH COURT

 Scope
 Locus standi
 Exercise of Revisional Powers
 exercised at the instance of a private party
 Audi Alteram Partem
 Treating application for revision as a petition of appeal
 No Abatement of Revision by death of the Petitioner

S.402 – 405 - ANCILLARY/MISCELLANEOUS POWERS UNDER REVISION.

 S.402 – Power of High Court to Withdraw or Transfer Revision Cases
 S.403 – Option of the Court to hear the Parties
 S.404 – Statement by Magistrate on grounds of his decision to be considered by the High
Court
 S.405 – High Court’s Order to be Certified to Lower Court.

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INTRODUCTION
 the right of appeal is not available in each and every case.
 Therefore, in order to prevent miscarriage of justice, where no appeal can be filed the
Courts have been vested with the power of Revision.
 The powers of revision conferred on the Higher Courts are very wide and discretionary in
nature.
 Section 397 – 405 deals with the Revisional Jurisdiction of the Courts.

POWER TO CALL FOR RECORDS

(S.397)

SCOPE OF POWER
Sub-section (1) of this section gives power to the High Court and the Sessions Judge to call for
and examine the record of any proceeding before any inferior Criminal Court within its or his
local jurisdiction. The purpose of examination of record is to satisfy about :-
(i) the correctness, legality or propriety of any finding, sentence or order recorded or passed by
such inferior Court, or
(ii) the regularity of any proceedings of such inferior Court

While exercising power conferred by this sub-section the High Court or the Sessions Judge may
direct that the execution of any sentence or order be suspended. If the accused is in confinement,
he may be released on bail or on his own bond pending the examination of the record

Badri Lal v State of MP- the power, conferred by this section should be exercised in exceptional
cases only when there is manifest error of point of law or flagrant miscarriage of justice. The
scope of revisional jurisdiction is limited and discretionary.
In Supdt. Legal Affairs W.B. v. Md. Samsuddin, it was held by the Supreme Court that the High
Court in the exercise of its revisional powers can quash the order of commitment if it comes to
the conclusion that the prosecution had failed to make out a prima facie case or that there was no
evidence at all on which the conviction of the accused could rest

NO REVISION AGAINST “INTERLOCUTORY” ORDERS

 S.397(2) expressly provides that no revision shall lie against an interlocutory order.
 The objective behind this provision is to attain finality of proceedings and expedite the
disposal of criminal cases.
 Meaning of Interlocutory Order – An interlocutory order is the one which is passed at
some intermediate stage of a proceeding generally to advance the
 It was held in Yadav Agencies Pvt. Ltd. v. Philomina, that an order under Section 451,
Cr.P. Code is actually not a disposal of property but only an interim arrangement for
proper custody pending conclusion of trial or inquiry. It is, therefore, an interlocutory
order and not subject to revision.

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  It was held in State v. N.M.T. Joy Immaculate, that the order of remand has no bearing
on the proceedings of the trial itself nor it can have any effect on the decision of the case.
The order is therefore a pure and simple interlocutory order and in view of the bar created
by sub-section (2) of Section 397 of Cr. P.С. a revision against the said order is
not maintainable

CONCURRENT JURISDICTION OF HIGH COURT AND SESSIONS COURT

 The aggrieved person can directly invoke the Revisional jurisdiction of either the High
Court or Session Court.
 Therefore, if an aggrieved person approaches the Sessions Court first, then he cannot
later on approach the High Court.
 S.397(3) also provides that a second revision is barred under the law.

CIRCUMSTANCES WHERE REVISIONAL JURISDICTION CAN BE EXERCISED

The following circumstances cull out certain circumstances where the Revisional Jurisdiction
may be exercised:
 Non – compliance with the provisions of law; or
 Finding of fact not based on evidence; or
 Non – consideration of material evidence; or
 Arbitrary exercise of judicial discretion; or

POWER TO ORDER ENQUIRY

(S.398)

SCOPE
 On examining any record under section 397 or otherwise, the High Court or the Sessions
Judge may direct the Chief Judicial Magistrate by himself or by any of the Magistrates
subordinate to him to make, and the Chief Judicial Magistrate may himself make or
direct any subordinate Magistrate to make, further inquiry into any complaint which has
been dismissed under section 203 or sub-section (4) of section 204, or into the case of
any person accused of an offence who has been discharged

OPPORTUNITY OF SHOWING CAUSE

 no Court shall make any direction under this section for inquiry into the case of any
person who has been discharged unless such person has had an opportunity of showing
cause why such direction should not be made.

SESSIONS JUDGE POWER OF REVISION

(S.399 – S.400)
SCOPE
 The powers of Sessions Judge to hear a revision is co extensive with that of High Court.

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CONCURRENT JURISDICTION
 The Session Judge and the High Court have concurrent jurisdiction to entertain a revision
petition.
 Meaning thereby that if a party files a revision petition before the Session Judge, the
decision of the Session Judge shall be final and no appeal shall lie from his decision to
the High Court.

POWERS OF REVISION OF ADDITIONAL SESSIONS JUDGE – S.400

An Additional Sessions Judge shall have and may exercise all the powers of a Sessions Judge
under this Chapter in respect of any case which may be transferred to him by or under any
general or special order of the Sessions Judge.

HIGH COURT’S POWER OF REVISION

(S.401)
LOCUS STANDI – WHO CAN INVOKE THE REVISIONAL JURISDICTION
 Section 401(1) authorises the court to exercise power of revision suo motu apart from the
application from a party. The complainant is entitled to move
 However, there are two limitations on the exercise of Revisional powers of the High
Court, the same are mentioned as follows:
a) If the revision is made before the Session Judge, then no revision lies before the
High Court; and
b) If an appeal lies but no appeal is filed
 Right of Private Party to file a Revision –
 A private party cannot file a revision where the case is instituted on a police
report.
 However in other cases the private has the right to file revision if any error is
committed by the Subordinate Court.
 In P.N.G. Raju v. B.P. Adpadu, 10 it was held by the Supreme Court that when
the revisional jurisdiction of High Court is invoked by a private complainant
(such as the brother of the deceased in a murder case) against an order of
acquittal, it can be exercised only in exceptional cases where the interests of
public justice require interference for correction of a manifest illegality or the
prevention of a gross miscarriage of justice.

EXERCISE OF REVISIONAL POWERS BY HIGH COURT

 The powers conferred u/s. 401 are discretionary in nature, and there is no vested right of
revision.
 It can be exercised in exceptional cases where there is a glaring defect in the procedure
or manifest error on point of law.

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  the High Court may, in its discretion, exercise any of the powers conferred on a Court of
Appeal by sections 386, 389, 390 and 391 or on a Court of Session by section 307, and,
when the Judges composing the Court of Revision are equally divided in opinion, the
case shall be disposed of in the manner provided by section 392.
 Interference by the High Court will be justified when the sentence is manifestly
inadequate or unduly lenient in the particular circumstances of the case or where failure
to impose a proper sentence results in miscarriage of justice. Kodavandi
v State of Kerala

AUDI ALTERAM PARTEM

 The basic rule of Audi alteram partem is applicable while the Court exercise its
Revisional jurisdiction.

LIMITATIONS ON POWER OF REVISION

 Nothing in this section shall be deemed to authorise a High Court to convert a finding of
acquittal into one conviction.
Ganesh v Sharanappa- The bar to convert the judgment of acquittal into of conviction
under revisional powers does not in any way impede the revisional Court from setting
aside acquittal in case where finding of acquittal is recorded on perverse appreciation of
evidence. However, in such a case, the revisional Court has to direct the trial court to
hold fresh trial on merits.
the Supreme Court in Chinnaswamy v. State of A.P., the High Court held that when
there is a glaring defect in the procedure or there is manifest error on a point of law the
High Court is empowered to set aside order of acquittal in revision and order retrial.
 Where under this Code an appeal lies and no appeal is brought, no proceeding by way of
revision shall be entertained at the instance of the party who could have appealed.

TREATING APPLICATION FOR REVISION AS A PETITION OF APPEAL

 There might be a case where application for revision has been made and the party who
has filed such application has not exhausted his right of appeal.
 Such non-filing of appeal can be on account of erroneous belief or a bona fide mistake.
 In such cases the Court may treat revision petition as an appeal in order to prevent
miscarriage of justice and enable justice to be done.

ANCILLARY POWERS UNDER REVISIONAL JURISDICTION

(S.402 – 405)

SECTION 402. Power of High Court to withdraw or transfer revision cases.—

(1) Whenever one or more persons convicted at the same trial makes or make application to a
High Court for revision and any other person convicted at the same trial makes an application

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to the Sessions Judge for revision, the High Court shall decide, having regard to the general
convenience of the parties and the importance of the questions involved, which of the two
Courts should finally dispose of the applications for revision and when the High Court decides
that all the applications for revision should be disposed of by itself, the High Court shall direct
that the applications for revision pending before the Sessions Judge be transferred to itself and
where the High Court decides that it is not necessary for it to dispose of the applications for
revision, it shall direct that the applications for revision made to it be transferred to the
Sessions Judge.

SECTION 403. Option of Court to hear parties

Save as otherwise expressly provided by this Code, no party has any right to be heard either
personally or by pleader before any Court exercising its powers of revision; but the Court may,
if it thinks fit, when exercising such powers, hear any party either personally or by pleader.

SECTION 404. Statement by Metropolitan Magistrate of grounds of his decision to be

considered by High Court.—
When the record of any trial held by a Metropolitan Magistrate is called for by the High Court
or Court of Session under section 397, the Magistrate may submit with the record a statement
setting forth the grounds of his decision or order and any facts which he thinks material to the
issue, and that Court shall consider such statement before overruling or setting aside the said
decision or order.

405. High Court's order to be certified to lower Court

When a case is revised under this Chapter by the High Court or a Sessions Judge, it or he shall,
in the manner provided by section 388, certify its decision or order to the Court by which the
finding, sentence or order revised was recorded or passed, and the Court to which the decision
or order is so certified shall thereupon make such orders as are conformable to the decision so
certified, and, if necessary, the record shall be amended in accordance therewith.