The State Of West Bengal vs Union Of India & Anr
2022 Latest Caselaw 1783 Cal

D/L8                               C.R.R. No.1451 of 2020
April 5,

In Re: An application under Article 227 of the Constitution of India read Bpg.

with Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973;

The State of West Bengal Versus Union of India & Anr.

Mr. S.N. Mukherji, Ld. A.G., Mr. Saswata Gopal Mukherjee, Ld. P.P., Mr. Sourav Chatterjee, Mrs. Sayanti Santra.

...for the petitioner/State.

Mr. Y. J. Dastoor, Mr. Debasish Tandon.

...for the opposite parties/Union of India.

The present revisional application was preferred

challenging the orders dated 04.09.2020 and 16.09.2020 passed by

the learned Judge, Special Court, Calcutta under NIA Act in NIA

Case No.7 of 2020 under Sections 3/4 of the Explosive Substances

Act.

The present application is under Article 227 of the

Constitution of India read with Section 482 of the Code of Criminal

Procedure, 1973.

Section 21 of the National Investigating Agency Act, 2008

is quoted below:

21 "Appeals.-

(1) Notwithstanding anything contained in the

Code, an appeal shall lie from any judgment, sentence or

order, not being an interlocutory order, of a Special Court

to the High Court both on facts and on law.

(2) Every appeal under sub-section (1) shall be

heard by a Bench of two Judges of the High Court and

shall, as far as possible, be disposed of within a period of

three months from the date of admission of the appeal.

(3) Except as aforesaid, no appeal or revision shall

lie to any court from any judgment, sentence or order

including an interlocutory order of a Special Court.

(4) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-

section (3) of section 378 of the Code, an appeal shall lie to

the High Court against an order of the Special Court

granting or refusing bail.

(5) Every appeal under this section shall be

preferred within a period of thirty days from the date of the

judgment, sentence or order appealed from:

Provided that the High Court may entertain an

appeal after the expiry of the said period of thirty days if it

is satisfied that the appellant had sufficient cause for not

preferring the appeal within the period of thirty days.

Provided further that no appeal shall be entertained

after the expiry of period of ninety days."

The sub-section (1) of Section 21 emphasizes that an

appeal shall lie from any judgment, sentence or order, not being an

interlocutory order, of a Special Court to the High Court both on

facts and on law and sub-section (2) provides that every appeal

under sub-section (1) should be heard by a Bench of two Judges of

the High Court.

In view of the aforesaid legislation, I am of the opinion

that the orders passed by the learned Special Court should be an

appeal and should be before a Division Bench of this Court.

The subject matter of the case involves a prayer of the

National Investigating Agency to investigate a case wherein the

State contends that the investigation is almost complete.

In view of the issue involving a tussle between the State

and the Union of India, I am of the opinion that the records of this

case be placed before the Hon'ble Chief Justice for appropriate

assignment for treating this revisional application as an appeal to

be heard by a Division Bench of this Court.

(Tirthankar Ghosh, J.)