Suman Mahto vs State of Bihar - 2023 Supreme(Pat) 650

Judicial Analysis Court Copy Headnote Facts Arguments Court observation

2023 Supreme(Pat) 650

IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA
CHAKRADHARI SHARAN SINGH and RAJESH KUMAR VERMA, JJ.
Criminal Appeal (SJ) Nos. 4792, 992, 1208, 2836, 2886, 2938, 3166, 3287, 3360, 3404, 3458, 3505, 3629, 3701, 3764, 3796, 3878, 3941, 3960, 4044, 4093, 4110, 4111, 4134, 4191, 4223, 4281, 4294, 4394, 4401, 4410, 4485, 4487, 4488, 4502, 4567, 4588, 4640, 4823, 4847, of 2018 with 3387, 4574 of 2017; 12, 55, 56, 61, 189, 233, 245, 255, 535, 615, 835, 999, 1062, 1170, 1428, 1462, 1513, 1550, 1595, 1691, 1758, 1987, 2018, 2043, 2046, 2219, 2229, 2756, 3076 of 2019
(9.8.2023)
Suman Mahto (in 4792)
Ram Pravesh Mistri and Ors. (in 3387)
Mrityunjay Kumar (in 4574)
Anil Kumar Singh and Ors. (in 992)
Mohan Yadav and Ors. (in 1208)
Usha Devi (in 2836)
Shashi Kant Lal (in 2886)
Awadesh Singh (in 2938)
Yashoda Devi and Anr. (in 3166)
Pramila Purve and Anr. (in 3287)
Nagendra Ram (in 3360)
Sarvajit (in 3404)
Ram Bilash Rai (in 3458)
Raghbendra Prasad Singh @ Raghwendra Prasad Singh & Ors. (in 3505)
Madan Choubey @ Madan Mohan Choubey (in 3629)
Sudhir Kumar Deo (in 3701)
Md. Basir Alam @ Basir Alam (in 3764)
Nageshwar Upadhyay @ Rameshwar Upadhyay & Ors. (in 3796)
Sarvajeet Nipun @ Jiwacch Pandey & Anr. (in 3878)
Durag Singh Rajpurohit (in 3941)
Mukesh Kumar and Anr. (in 3960)
Rameshwar Sah @ Rameshwar Prasad @ Rameshwar Prasad Sah (in 4044)
Loki Mahto And Ors. (in 4093)
Subhash Rajak (in 4110)
Nasim Akhtar & Ors. (in 4111)
Mahant Veer Raghav Prapanna Ramanuj Das @ Ramchandra Sharma @ Mahant Veer Raghav @ Mahanth Veer Rag (in 4134)
Shiv Kumar Prasad @ Shiv Kumar (in 4191)
Panna Devi (in 4223)
Raman Kumar (in 4281)
Shyam Sarraf & Anr. (in 4294)
Brahmdev Singh @ Brahma Dev Singh & Anr. (in 4394)
Garju Gond (in 4401)
Maha Rai @ Mahanand Rai & Anr. (in 4410)
Rajesh Kumar Thakur (in 4485)
Dr. Sunita Kumari (in 4487)
Rupak Kumar (in 4488)
Ran Vijay Kumar & Anr. (in 4502)
Amarendra Kumar Singh @ Dadan Singh & Anr. (in 4567)
Raj Kumari Devi & Ors. (in 4588)
Jagdeo Das & Ors. (in 4640)
Mukesh Kumar (in 4823)
Shakil Ahamad @ Shakil Ahmed (in 4847)
Shabbir Mohamood @ shabbir Hussain & Ors. (in 12)
Brijnandan Prasad (in 55)
Nand Kishore Singh @ nand kishoe singh & Ors. (in 56)
Bithal Nath Tripathi @ Dr. Vithal Nath Tripathi & Ors. (in 61)
Upkar Pritam Kumar Santoshi & Ors. (in 189)
Nakul Singh & Ors. (in 233)
Dr. Ashok Kumar Srivastava @ Ashok Kumar Srivastava & Anr. (in 245)
Pankaj Kumar Singh (in 255)
Mahanth Ram Mohan Das @ Ram Mohan Das Chele Waris Late Mahanth Ram Sundar Das (in 535)
Md. Shakil @ Shakil Ahmad & Ors. (in 615)
Anuj Kumar Sinha @ Chintu Kumar (in 835)
Umakant Verma (in 999)
Janardhan Swarnkar (in 1062)
Swaraj Behari Choudhary @ Swarajy Behari Choudhary (in 1170)
Ashok Rai @ Ashok Kumar Rai (in 1428)
Shahid Hussain @ Mister (in 1462)
Nirmal Kumar Bubna @ Nirmal Bubna @ Nirmal Babuna (in 1513)
Yogendra Singh (in 1550)
Ramesh Roy @ Ramesh Rai (in 1595)
Jitendra Kumar (in 1691)
Uday Yadav (in 1758)
Raziul Islam Khan @ Rajiul Islam Khan (in 1987)
Subhash Prasad (in 2018)
Shridhar Mishra @ Munna Mishra (in 2043)
Sunil Kumar Dubey @ Sunil Dubey (in 2046)
Ranjeet Jha @ Sanjeet (in 2219)
Satish Kumar (in 2229)
Shambhu Kumar Chaudhary @ Shambhu Kumar Prince (in 2756)
Rajesh Jain (in 3076)
vs.
State of Bihar ... Respondents
(in all)
M/s Shiv Kumar Dwivedy (in 4792); Kumar Uday Singh (in 3387); Soni Shrivastava (in 4574); Ranjan Kumar Singh (in 992); Iqbal Asif Niazi (in 1208); Mukesh Kumar Jha (in 2836); Digvijay Narayan Singh (in 2886); Binod Kumar Singh (in 2938); Raghav Prasad No.-1 (in 3166); Gagan Deo Yadav (in 3287); Ratan Kumar Sinha (in 3360); Awadhesh Kumar Singh (in 3404); Anil Kumar Singh (in 3458); Randhir Kumar No-1 (in 3505); Rajesh Kumar Sinha (in 3629); Vijay Kumar Singh (in 3701); Pritish Kumar Lal (in 3764); Rajesh Kumar (in 3796); Vijay Anand (in 3878, 189); Saket Tiwary (in 3941); Archana Sinha @ Archana Shahi (in 3960); Shyam Kishor Das (in 4044); Anil Kumar No.1 (in 4093); Dr. Anjani Pd. Singh (in 4110); Vijay Kr Singh No. 1 (in 4111) Vaidehi Raman Prasad Singh (in 4134); Rajesh Kumar (in 4191); Madhurendra Kumar (in 4223); Manoj Kumar Manoj (in 4281); Raj Dular Sah (in 4294); Madhav Jha (in 4394); Subhash Kumar Jha (in 4401); Subhash Kumar Jha (in 4410); Rajkumar Rajesh (in 4485); Rajkumar Rajesh (in 4487); Deepak Kumar (in 4488); Sudhir Kumar Sinha (in 4502); Dinesh Maharaj (in 4567); Prafull Chandra Jha (in 4588); Diwakar Prasad Karn (in 4640); Raj Kumar (in 4823); Raghunandan Kumar Singh (in 4847); Devendra Prasad Singh (in 12); Dr. Anand Kumar (in 55); Diwakar Prasad Karn (in 56); Devi Das Srivastava (in 61); Bhaskar Shankar (in 233); Girish Chandra Jha (in 245); Anita Kumari (in 255); Arvind Kumar Jha (in 535); Iqbal Asif Niazi (in 615); Vijay Kumar (in 835); Siddharth Harsh (in 999); Prakash Chandra Gupta (in 1062); Rana Bhupendra Narayan Singh (in 1170); Bimlesh Kumar Pandey (in 1428); Zeyaul Hoda (in 1462); Nilesh Kumar (in 1513); Milind Kumar Mishra (in 1550); Amar Nath Deo (in 1595); Vaidehi Raman Prasad Singh (in 1691); Arun Kumar (in 1758); Iqbal Asif Niazi (in 1987); Dr. Anjani Pd. Singh (in 2018); Ranvijay Narain Singh (in 2043); Rajive Ranjan Singh (in 2046); Mrigendra Kumar (in 2219); Ajay Mukherjee (in 2229); Harendra Prasad (in 2756); Rajeev Shekhar (in 3076).
M/s Binay Krishna, APP (in 4792, 2886, 3387, 4574, 1208, 3360, 3458, 3764, 3878, 4134, 4223, 4394, 4823, 12, 55, 189, 1462, 1550, 1987, 2018, 2043, 2756, 3076); Sri Sadanand Paswan, APP(in 992, 2836, 3287, 3404, 3629, 3701, 4093, 4110, 4111, 4281, 4294, 4567, 56, 61, 233, 255, 835, 999, 1062, 1513, 1595, 2219, 2229); Smt. Usha Kumari No-1 (in 2938, 3166, 3505, 3796, 3941, 4044, 4191, 4401, 4410, 4502, 4588, 4640, 4847, 245, 535, 615, 1170, 1428, 1691, 1758, 2046); Md. Nasrul Huda Khan , SC1 (in 3960); Sri Surendra Kumar, APP (in 4485); Ram Shankar Das, APP (in 4487); Sri Rajendra Nath Jha, APP (in 4488).

Headnote:
Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 – Sector 14A – Appeals – the cases coming and reference involving ambit, scope and limitations of Section 14 A of the SC ST (Prevention of Atrocities) – the decision rendered by a Bench of the H.C. in Suman Thakur's case that when an offence under the Indian Penal Code or any other law is committed, the Cr. P.C. Shall regulate the mode of investigation, enquiry or trial unless there is an enactment to negate the manner of place of investigating, inquiry into the trial otherwise, dealing with such offences, in the latter case, special enactment shall prevail over those provision of the Cr. P.C. in the absence of any specific provision contrary in Cr. P.C. lays down the correct law and is specially affirmed – the Court is also in aggreement with the decision of the D.B. in Bishwan Mishra case that in a case under the SC ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Acts, an appeal can lie only against an order of the special court or the Exclusive special court, as the case may be – the accused will have no right to directly file an application under Section 438 Cr. P.C. before the H.C. for grant of pre-arrest bail – an order taking cognizance by a special court or an Exclusive special court is not an 'interlocutory order', and , therefore, an appeal would lie against such order under Section 14A(1) of the Act – Constitutional validity of any provision under the Act has not been gone into as not been raised – Reference stands answered accordingly. (Paras 15, 19, 24 & 25)
(1977) 4 SCC 137, (1977) 4 SCC 551, (1999) 3 SCC 134, (2017) 14 SCC 809, Cr. App. (SJ) No. 591 of 2016 D/- 14.09.2016 Para 71 to 74, Cr. Misc. No. 25276 of 2016 D/- 27.10.2016, (2003) 8 SCC 50 – Referred.

Chakradhari Sharan Singh, J. – Precisely narrated, the questions as regards, the ambit, scope and the limitations of Section 14A of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Act’ in short), are involved in the present reference to the Division Bench made by a learned single-Judge of this Court by an order dated 08.04.2019, passed in the present batch of cases. In paragraph no. 2 of the Reference Order, the learned single-Judge has expressed disagreement with the view taken by a co-ordinate bench of a learned single-Judge. The order of Reference, however, missed to refer to the exact decision of the co-ordinate bench of learned single-Judge of this court with which learned Judge was not in agreement. Learned single-Judge in his concluding paragraphs of the Reference Order has noted as under: –

“19. Similar issue was subject to consideration by the Full Bench of Allahabad High Court in Criminal Writ (Public Interest Litigation) No.08 of 2018 with Criminal Miscellaneous No.38755 of 2017 Satyendra and others vs. State of Uttar Pradesh with Criminal Writ (Public Interest Litigation) No.11 of 2018, Vishnu Behari Tiwari vs. Union of India and others reported in 2018 CRI.L.J. 5010 and during consideration of the same, the Full Bench on its own framed, the following points for adjudication: –

A. Whether provisions of sub-section (2) of Section 14-A and the second proviso to sub-section (3) of Section 14-A of the Amending Act, are violative of Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution, being unjust, unreasonable and arbitrary?

B. Whether in view of the provisions contained in Section 14-A of the Amending Act, a petition under the provisions of Article 226/227 of the Constitution of India or a revision under Section 397 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (in short Cr.P.C.) or a petition under Section 482 Cr.P.C., is maintainable. OR in other words, whether by virtue of Section 14-A of the Amending Act, the powers of the High Court under Articles 226/227 of the Constitution or its revisional powers or the powers under Section 482 Cr.P.C. stand ousted?

C. Whether the amended provisions of Section 14-A would apply to offences or proceedings initiated or pending prior to 26 January 2016?

D. Whether upon the expiry of the period of limitation for filing of an appeal as specified in the second proviso to Section 14-A (3), Section 439 Cr.P.C. and the powers conferred on the High Court in terms thereof would stand revived?

E. Whether the power to directly take cognizance of offences shall be exercisable by the existing Special Courts other then the Exclusive Special Courts or Special Courts to be specified under the amended Section 14?”

And answered one by one by concluding under Para- 115 as follows:-

“115. In light of the above discussion, our answer to the Questions formulated are as follows:

A. Whether provisions of sub-section (2) of Section 14A and the second proviso to sub- section (3) of Section 14A of the Amending Act, are violative of Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution, being unjust, unreasonable and arbitrary?

While we reject the challenge to Section 14-A (2), we declare that the second proviso to Section 14A (3) is clearly violative of both Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution. It is not just manifestly arbitrary, it has the direct and unhindered effect of taking away the salutary right of a first appeal which has been recognised to be an integral facet of fair procedure enshrined in Article 21 of the Constitution. The absence of discretion in the Court to consider condonation of delay even where sufficient cause may exist renders the measure wholly capricious, irrational and excessive. It is consequently struck down.

B. Whether in view of the provisions contained in Section 14 A of the Amending Act, a petition under the provisions of Article 226/227 of the Constitution of India or a revision under Section 397 of the Code of Criminal Procedure or a petition under Sect