Supreme Court clarifies which court hears a victim's appeal against acquittal under the new BNSS

Deciding a special leave petition filed by the father of a patient who died in hospital care, allegedly due to the negligence of a doctor and a nurse, an offence under Section 304A read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code, the Supreme Court clarified which forum hears a victim's appeal against an acquittal under the new Bharatiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), 2023. A Judicial Magistrate had acquitted the accused, and the High Court held that the father's appeal against the acquittal did not lie before it but before the Sessions Court; the father challenged this before the Supreme Court. Rejecting his petition, the Court explained that Section 419 of the BNSS, which lets the State appeal an acquittal for a cognizable, non-bailable offence to the Sessions Court and other acquittals to the High Court, is displaced here by the proviso to Section 413 of the BNSS, which gives a victim a distinct right to appeal against any acquittal, a conviction for a lesser offence, or inadequate compensation, directing that such an appeal must go to whichever court an appeal against a conviction of that trial court would ordinarily go to.

Since a conviction by a Magistrate is appealable to the Sessions Court under Section 415(3) of the BNSS, the father's appeal against the acquittal also lay there, not before the High Court. The Court permitted him to file the appeal before the Sessions Court within one month without objection on delay.