Victims have the right to appeal criminal acquittals under updated statutory provisions, irrespective of their status as complainants.

JUDGMENT :

Shreeram V. Shirsat, J.

1. The Appellant has approached this Court being aggrieved by the Judgment and Order dated 24.4.2015, passed by the Judicial Magistrate, First Class ‘C’ Court, Ponda in Criminal Case No.611/OA/ NIA /2013/C. The Judicial Magistrate, First Class ‘C’ Court, Ponda, has acquitted the Respondent no.1.

2. The Appellant herein is the original complainant who had filed complaint under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, against the Respondent no.1 herein, being Criminal Case No. 611/OA/ NIA /2013/C before the Judicial Magistrate, First Class ‘C’ Court Ponda. The Respondent no.1 has been acquitted. Thereafter, the Appellant filed a Special Leave to Appeal before this Court, which was granted vide order dated 18.06.2016, and the Appeal was accordingly admitted. Appeal is pending before this Court.

3. During the pendency of the proceedings the judgment of the Apex Court in the case of Celestium Financial V/s A. 1 Gnanasekaran & ors., 2025 (3) MLJ (Crl)147, was brought to the notice of this Court, wherein the Hon’ble Supreme Court in paragraph nos. 9 and 10 has held as under:

“9. In the circumstances, we find that Section 138 of the Act being in the nature of a penal provision by a deeming fiction against an Accused who is said to have committed an offence under the said provision, if acquitted, can be proceeded against by a victim of the said offence, namely, the person who is entitled to the proceeds of a cheque which has been dishonoured, in terms of the proviso to Section 372 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, as a victim. As already noted, a victim of an offence could also be a complainant. In such a case, an appeal can be preferred either under the proviso to or under Section 378 by such a victim. In the absence of the proviso to , a victim of an offence could not have filed an appeal as such, unless he was also a complainant, in which event he could maintain an appeal if special leave to appeal had been granted by the High Court and if no such special leave was granted then his appeal would not be maintainable at all. On the other hand, if the victim of an offence, who may or may not be the complainant, proceeds under the proviso to of the Code of Criminal Procedure, then in our view, such a victim need not seek special leave to appeal from the High Court. In other words, the victim of an offence would have the right to prefer an appeal, inter alia, against an order of acquittal in terms of the proviso to without seeking any special leave to appeal from the High Court only on the grounds mentioned therein. A person who is a complainant Under Section 200 of the Code of Criminal Procedure who complains about the offence committed by a person who is charged as an Accused Under of the Act, thus has the right to prefer an appeal as a victim under the proviso to of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

10. As already noted, the proviso to Section 372 of the Code of Criminal Procedure was inserted in the statute book only with effect from 31.12.2009. The object and reason for such insertion must be realised and must be given its full effect to by a court. In view of the aforesaid discussion, we hold that the victim of an offence has the right to prefer an appeal under the proviso to of the Code of Criminal Procedure, irrespective of whether he is a complainant or not. Even if the victim of an offence is a complainant, he can still proceed under the proviso to and need not advert to Sub-section (4) of Section 378 of the Code of Criminal Procedure”

4. Section 413 of BNSS reads as under:

“413. No appeal to lie unless otherwise provided.—No appeal shall lie from any judgment or order of a Criminal Court except as provided for by this Sanhita or by any other law for the time being in for