Sk. Boby @ Sk. Bobby @ Rahis Bobby vs The State Of West Bengal
2021 Latest Caselaw 5612 Cal

AD. 13.

November 8, 2021.

MNS.

C.R.A. No. 175 of 2020 With IA No: CRAN 1 of 2020(Old No: CRAN 3100 of 2020) + IA No: CRAN 2 of 2020(Old No: CRAN 3101 of 2020) + CRAN 3 of 2020 + CRAN 4 of 2020 + CRAN 5 of 2021

(Via Video Conference)

Sk. Boby @ Sk. Bobby @ Rahis Bobby Vs.

The State of West Bengal

Mr. Milon Mukherjee, Mr. Sandip Chakrabarty, Mr. Arun Upaddhaya, Mr. Prosenjit Mukherjee

...for the appellant.

Mr. Arijit Ganguly, Mr. Sanjib Kumar Das

...for the State.

Learned senior counsel appearing for the appellant

rightly points out that, reading Section 10 in conjunction with

Section 374(2) of the Criminal Procedure Code, appeals only

from judgments of conviction of more than seven years shall lie

before this Court in the event the same is passed by an

Assistant Sessions Judge. However, in the present case the

sentence awarded was for imprisonment for seven years.

In his usual fairness, however, learned senior counsel

also points out that there was a previous rejection by a co-

ordinate Bench of an application for bail in connection with the

appeal, before which Bench the said legal point was not

argued.

Be that as it may, in view of the inherent lack of

jurisdiction of this Court, in view of the composite reading of

Sections 374(2) and 10 of the Criminal Procedure Code,

jurisdiction cannot be conferred on this Court to hear the

appeal merely by virtue of a prior rejection on merit, in view of

the fact that such order, even at that juncture, was passed de

hors the jurisdiction of this Court, since the appeal is not

maintainable in this Court, but has to be preferred before the

competent Sessions Judge having jurisdiction; although, in all

fairness, the said point was not taken at all before the earlier

co-ordinate Bench rejecting the prayer for bail. In any event,

the said order passed on the prayer for bail does not, in law,

operate as a bar to consider the point of jurisdiction at the

juncture of hearing the appeal itself.

As such, without going into the merits of the matter, the

appeal is dismissed as not maintainable before this Court, with

liberty to the appellant to approach the appropriate Sessions

Judge at Alipore, District- South 24 Parganas with a properly

constituted appeal, subject to limitation.

It is made clear that it will be open to the appellant to

pray for bail/suspension of sentence in connection with an

appeal, if preferred before the Sessions Judge, who will decide

the same independently on its own merits and in accordance

with law, without being influenced by any of the observations

made herein.

Liberty is given to the learned Advocate-on-record for

the appellant to take back the certified copy of the impugned

judgment and sentence, upon furnishing a photocopy of the

same in due process of law.

In view of dismissal of the appeal, all connected

applications are also disposed of accordingly.

Urgent photostat certified copies of this order, if applied

for, be made available to the parties upon compliance with the

requisite formalities.

(Sabyasachi Bhattacharyya, J.)