Orissa High Court
Biswanath Gadaba vs State Of Odisha on 10 April, 2023
IN THE HIGH COURT OF ORISSA AT CUTTACK
JCRLA No.21 of 2022
Biswanath Gadaba .... Appellant
Mr. D.N. Pattnaik, Advocate
-versus-
State of Odisha .... Respondent
Mr. Rajesh Tripathy,
Addl. Standing Counsel
CORAM:
JUSTICE S.K. SAHOO
ORDER
Order No.
10.04.2023
03. This matter is taken up through Hybrid arrangement
(video conferencing/physical mode).
Heard Mr. Debendra Narayan Pattnaik, who has
been engaged as the legal aid counsel for the appellant
and Mr. Rajesh Tripathy, learned Standing counsel for the
State.
Perused the order dated 06.07.2022 passed by the
Division Bench of this Court.
When this appeal came before me on 18.04.2022,
taking into account the fact that the co-convict Mansingh
Godba has been found guilty and sentenced to undergo
imprisonment for life for his conviction under section 302
of the Indian Penal Code by the learned trial Court in the
same judgment, I directed the matter to be placed before
a Division Bench with the connected appeal filed by the
co-convict. However, when the matter came before the
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Division Bench on 06.07.2022, it was held that since the
appellant has been sentenced to suffer R.I. for three years
for committing offence punishable under section 324 of
the Indian Penal Code, the appeal be placed before the
learned Single Judge for hearing and it was further
directed that the appeal be de-tagged from JCRLA No.6 of
2022.
It appears that there is a delay of seventy one days
in filing this jail criminal appeal.
Since the appellant Biswanath Gadaba has been
sentenced to undergo R.I. for a period of three years and
it is a jail criminal appeal, on perusal of the prisoner's
petition and on hearing the learned counsel for both the
parties, I am inclined to condone the delay in filing this
appeal. Accordingly, delay is condoned.
Heard.
Admit.
Since the trial court record has already been
received in JCRLA No.6 of 2022, no further order is
necessary for calling of the trial Court record.
The co-accused Mansingh Gadaba faced trial along
with the appellant in the same trial and he has been found
guilty for the offence under section 302 of the Indian
Penal Code and sentenced to undergo R.I. for life and to
pay a fine of Rs.50,000/- (rupees fifty thousand), in
default to undergo R.I. for a period of two years and he
has preferred JCRLA No.6 of 2022 before this Court.
Chapter-III of the Rules of the High Court of Orissa,
1948 relates to jurisdiction of Single Judges and Benches
of the High Court and it is mentioned in Rule 1 (xi) that an
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appeal under the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 other
than an appeal in a case in which a sentence of death or
imprisonment for life has been passed may be heard and
disposed of by a Single Judge. However, it is provided
under the said Rule 1(xi) that if a Judge thinks fit, he may
refer any matter mentioned in any of the clauses of Rule-1
other than Clauses (viii) and (ix) to a Bench of two
Judges.
In the case at hand, since the appellant Mansingh
Gadaba who preferred JCRLA No.6 of 2022 and the
present appellant faced one trial i.e., C.T. Case No.43 of
2016 in the Court of Addl. Sessions Judge-cum- Special
Judge, Jeypore and same set of evidence was adduced
against them and they have challenged the same
judgment in two CRLAs, in the fitness of things, in my
humble view, both the appeals should be heard
analogously one after the other by the same Bench and
disposed of by a common judgment otherwise there would
be chance of conflicting of appreciation of evidence.
In view of such state of affairs, particularly in view of
the order dated 06.07.2022 passed by the Division Bench,
this appeal be placed before the Hon'ble Chief Justice to
place it before the appropriate Bench.
( S.K. Sahoo)
Judge
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