SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. Refusal of bail by Special Court is an interlocutory order. Appeal to High Court under Section 14A of SC/ST Act is not maintainable. Remedy is petition under Section 438/439 Cr.P.C. Karnataka High Court.

Mahesh M.S. and others vs State of Karnataka. Criminal Petition 6901/2020 decided on 23 November 2020.

Judgment Link: http://judgmenthck.kar.nic.in/judgmentsdsp/bitstream/123456789/349400/1/CRLP6901-20-23-11-2020.pdf

Held: Page 6. On close reading of Section 14A, it starts with a non-obstante clause and it says that an appeal shall lie, from any judgment, sentence or order, not being an interlocutory order of a Special Court. If that interpretation is taken into consideration, then  under  such circumstances, wider meaning  has to be given to  the applicability of the Code of Criminal Procedure. As could be seen from the provisions of Sections 438 and  439 of Cr.P.C., the concurrent jurisdiction has been given to both High Court as well as to the Sessions Court for releasing the accused on anticipatory bail or regular bail. Though an order has been passed by the Special Court under Section 438 or Section 439 of Cr.P.C., the parties are not going to challenge the order which has been passed by the trial Court under the said Act. It is an independent right which has been given to the parties to approach this Court ignoring the order passed by the trial Court under Section 438 or Section 439 of Cr.P.C. No where in Code of Criminal Procedure it says that as against the order of the bail, an appeal lies and even as could be seen from the provisions of Section 378 of Cr.P.C., it is made clear that as and when an order of acquittal or the other orders are passed, then an appeal lies.

Page 8. Taking into consideration the provisions of Section 14A of the Act, it makes very clear that against any order passed by the Special Court, which has reached its finality, then under such circumstances, an appeal lies under Section 14A of the Act. But the bail application is not considered to be a final order, it is only an interim order/interlocutory order to release or not to release  the  accused on bail.  Even the said Section says ‘not being an interlocutory order’, that itself goes to show that the bail application is only   an interlocutory order and against such order, no appeal lies. No enactment can take away the power vested with this Court under Section 438 or 439 of Cr.P.C. unless it is specifically excluded.

Compiled by S. Basavaraj, Advocate, Daksha Legal.