The power to summarily dismiss an appeal against acquittal after perusal of the petition by the court and after hearing the Public Prosecutor is neither expressly nor impliedly taken away by the non-mention of Section 417 in Section 421 of the CrPC.

( 1 ) WHEN Criminal Appeal No. 348 of 1959 is about to be taken up to consider whether it could be admitted, the learned Public Prosecutor contended that in regard to an appeal tiled by the Public Prosecutor under the direction of the State Government under Section 417 Cr. P. C. , this Court has no power to summarily dismiss an appeal, as it should be considered that right of the State to prefer an appeal could not be interfered with by the Court at the admission stage, but any appeal preferred by the Public Prosecutor under the direction of the State Government should be dismissed only on merits after notice to the accused. In support of this plea, the learned Public Prosecutor formulated the point under the following heads: (1) That Section 421 Cr. P. C. does not refer to Section 417 Cr. P. C. and the absence of mention of that section as well as Section 411 (A) Cr. P. C. in that provision makes it possible to contend that Section 421 does not apply to cases of appeal filed against acquittals; (2) That Section 419 Cr. P. C. is not in respect of filing of appeals by the Public Prosecutor under the direction of the State Government as even there, there is no mention of the "public Prosecutor" and that therefore the want of specific mention of Section 417 in Section 421 makes Section 481 inapplicable to appeals against acquittals preferred by the State; (3) That in Sub-section (1) of Section 417, the words, "subject to the provisions of Sub-section (5)" and the words, "in any case" are inserted by Act XXVI of 1955 and the specific mention of the limitation that no appeal shall be filed by the State if special leave is refused to complainant in Sub-section (5) should be taken as the only restriction in respect of preferring of appeals against acquittal by the State and that the further adjudication by the Court to enable admission is not called for; and that the fact that no special leave of the Court is necessary for filing an appeal by State against acquittal of the accused exemplifies this: and (4) Lastly, referring to the second para of Section 422 Cr. P. C. and pointing to the absence in it of the words, "if the appellate Court does not dismiss the appeal summarily", it is stressed that it is indicative of the intendment in enacting the provisions in the Code so as to dispense with the procedure as to admission of appeals in regard to appeals against acquittal.

( 2 ) THE learned Public Prosecutor adopting this line of reasoning invites us to hold that an appeal against acquittal, even if posited for admission in accordance with Rule 191 (Criminal Rules of Practice) need not be gone into for purposes of dismissing the appeal summarily, but that it should be automatically admitted and notice given to accused. There might be some room, in our view, for such a contention if only appeals against acquittals could be treated as a Separate class, to which general provisions in the Code of Criminal Procedure relating to appeals are unrelated Cr inapplicable. But what the Code does is to create, define and delimit the right of appeal given to various persons such as the accused, complainant the State or parties. In the case of conviction, appeals are provided under Sections 406, 408, 410, 411, 411-A (1) and 415-A and appeals against acquittal are governed by Sections 417 and 411-A (2) Criminal Procedure Code. Further Section 417 deals with appeals against acquittals directed to be filed by the State and also appeals against acquittals by complainants. But in regard to the form, mode and method of presenting appeals, we find Section 419 alone providing for it. It states: "every appeal shall be made in the form of a petition in writing presented by the appellant or his pleader, and every such petition shall (unless the Court to which it is presented otherwise directs) be accompanied by a copy of the judgment or order appealed against, and in cases tried by a jury, a copy of the heads of the charge recorded under Section 367". It is, th

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