High Court’s power of revision under section 401 CrPC

(i) High Court while exercising powers of revision can exercise all powers of appellate court specified in section 386 CrPC except the power to convert the finding of acquittal into conviction – In exceptional circumstances, High Court can exercise the power of acquittal and direct retrial of cases.

(ii) In the matter of revision, the trial court without being influenced by observation made by the Revisional Court has power to re-appreciate the evidence.

(iii) Setting aside of order of acquittal in revision is guided by certain principles:

(1) where acquittal is based on misreading of evidence or non-consideration of evidence or perverse appreciation of evidence or where trial court overlooked the material evidence or

(2) where there is manifest error of law or procedure or

(3) where the acquittal suffers from glaring illegality causing miscarriage of justice. Ganesha v. Sharanappa and another Judgment dated 19.11.2013 passed by the Supreme Court in Criminal Appeal No. 1948 of 2013, reported in (2014) 1 SCC 87 Extracts from Judgment:

From a plain reading of sub-section (1) of Section 401 of the Code it is evident that the High Court, while exercising the powers of revision, can exercise any of the powers conferred on a court of appeal including the power under Section 386 of the Code, relevant portion whereof reads as follows:

“386. Powers of the Appellate Court. – After perusing such record and hearing the appellant or his pleader, if he appears, and the Public Prosecutor, if he appears, and in case of an appeal under section 377 or section 378, the accused, if he appears, the Appellate Court may, if it considers that there is no sufficient ground for interfering, dismiss the appeal, or may –

(a) in an appeal from an order of acquittal, reverse such order and direct that further inquiry be made, or that the accused be re-tried or committed for trial, as the case may be, or find him guilty and pass sentence on him according to law.” However, in a case where the finding of acquittal is recorded on account of misreading of evidence or non-consideration of evidence or perverse appreciation of evidence, nothing prevents the High Court from setting aside the order of acquittal at the instance of the informant in revision and directing fresh disposal on merit by the trial court. In the event of such direction, the trial court shall be obliged to re-appraise the evidence in light of the observation of the revisional court and take an independent view uninfluenced by any of the observations of the revisional court on the merit of the case. By way of abundant caution, we may herein observe that interference with the order of acquittal in revision is called for only in cases where there is manifest error of law or procedure and in those exceptional cases in which it is found that the order of acquittal suffers from glaring illegality, resulting into miscarriage of justice. The High Court may also interfere in those cases of acquittal caused by shutting out the evidence which otherwise ought to have been considered or where the material evidence which clinches the issue has been overlooked. In such an exceptional case, the

(b) High Court in revision can set aside an order of acquittal but it cannot convert an order of acquittal into that of an order of conviction. The only course left to the High Court in such exceptional cases is to order re-trial.