Court No. - 70
Case :- CRIMINAL APPEAL DEFECTIVE No. - 56 of 2020 Appellant :- Sri Prakash And 4 Ors.
Respondent :- State Of U.P. And Anr.
Counsel for Appellant :- Munna Tiwari,Vinod Kumar Yadav Counsel for Respondent :- G.A.
Hon'ble Mohd. Aslam,J.
Heard learned counsel for appellants, Sri Om Prakash, learned A.G.A. for State and Sri V.K. Mishra, learned counsel for opposite party no.2.
The application for condonation of delay has been moved in filing the appeal against the order dated 6.9.2019, by which learned Special Judge (S.C./S.T. Act), Gorakhpur has taken cognizance on charge-sheet, which was filed in Crime No.126 of 2018 (State Vs. Sri Prakash) for offence punishable under Sections 279, 337, 147, 323, 354 I.P.C. and 3(1)(द) & 3(1)(ध) of S.C./S.T. Act registered as S.T. No.696 of 2019, which was taken against Sri Praksh, Shravan, Anirudh Yadav, Sandeep Yadav and Saurabh.
It is contended by learned counsel for applicants that applicants are very poor persons and due to that they could not arrange expenses for filing the appeal and anyhow they arranged the money in the last week of December, 2019, thereafter, they filed the appeal. It is further contended by learned counsel for applicant that the delay may be condoned as the applicant could not file the appeal within time due to poverty.
Learned A.G.A. and learned counsel for opposite party no.2 have contended that according to Section 14-A(3) of S.C./S.T. Act, prescribed for filing of appeal is 90 days and no appeal can be filed after 180 days. It is argued that this appeal is filed after a lapse of period of 180 days, therefore, the application cannot be entertained.
I have gone through the file. The impugned order is passed on 6.9.2019 and the appeal has been filed on 18.1.2020. Provision of Section 14-A(3) of S.C./S.T. Act provides for filing appeal speaks as follows:-
"(3) Notwithstanding anything contained in any other law for the time being in force, every appeal under this section shall be preferred within a period of ninety 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 ninety days if it is satisfied that the appellant had sufficient cause for not preferring the appeal within the period of ninety days:
Provided that no appeal shall be entertained after expiry of period of one hundred and eighty days."
From perusal of above provision, it is clear that no application for condonation of delay can be entertained after lapse of 180 days of passing the impugned order.
This appeal has been filed against the order of taking cognizance on charge-sheet and not against the order of conviction and sentence, therefore, in view of Section 14-A(3) of S.C./S.T. Act, the delay in filing the appeal is not liable to be condoned, and accordingly the application for condonation of delay is rejected. Consequently, the appeal is dismissed.
Order Date :- 21.9.2021 Anil K. Sharma