Pleas filed after July 1 under CrPC non-maintainable, rules Punjab and Haryana High Court

Saurabh Malik

Chandigarh, July 13

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has ruled that any appeal, application, revision, or petition filed on or after July 1 must be instituted under the provisions of the BNSS, 2023. Justice Sumeet Goel also ruled that any such filing on or after July 1 under the provisions of the CrPC was non-maintainable and would deserve dismissal/rejection. The ruling is in contrast to the administrative orders permitting filings under both old and new laws. Justice Goel asserted that the BNSS came into force on July 1, as per the notification dated February 23. Consequently, the BNSS became the applicable criminal procedural law and the previous procedural law stood repealed immediately.

“The earlier procedural statute, CrPC-1973, is wiped off the statute book and resultantly pales into insignificance, except to the extent it is preserved by the repealing and savings clause contained in Section 531 of the BNSS,” Justice Goel asserted.

Referring to the provision, Justice Goel observed that its critical analysis showed that only appeal, application, trial, inquiry or investigation pending up to June 30 would not be affected by the repealing of the CrPC. Such proceedings would be adjudicated upon in terms of the provisions of the CrPC itself.

Any appeal, application, revision, petition, trial, inquiry or investigation pending before July 1 was, in fact, required to be disposed of, continued, held or made in accordance with the provisions of the CrPC. Conversely, any such proceedings instituted on or after July 1, on the other hand, were essentially required to be adjudicated upon in terms of the provisions of the BNSS.

Justice Goel also dismissed as non-maintainable a petition filed on behalf of an accused under Section 482 of the CrPC for quashing an FIR.