Supreme Court directs Patna High Court to expedite rape convict's appeal after multiple judges recuse

The Supreme Court last week asked the Patna High Court to expedite the hearing of a rape convict's appeal preferred before the High Court against his conviction by the trial court [Rajballabh Prasad @ Rajballabh Yadav v. State of Bihar].

The order passed by a division bench of Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra was necessitated by the unusual circumstances surrounding the case, wherein four different division benches of the High Court had recused from hearing the appeal over the past 18 months.

The appellant-convict argued before the Supreme Court that the six-month time frame provided under Section 374(4) of the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 (CrPC) for disposal of appeal against conviction in rape cases, has been entirely frustrated.

"The special leave petition is disposed of with a request to the Hon’ble the Chief Justice of the High Court to constitute an appropriate Bench comprising of members who can decide the criminal appeal presented by the petitioner to give effect to the legislative intention expressed in sub-section (4) of section 374, Cr. PC. Once the appropriate Division Bench is constituted, the petitioner shall co-operate for expeditious disposal thereof without seeking unnecessary adjournment," the Supreme Court stated in its November 22 order.

The appellant was convicted under Section 376 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Sections 4 and 8 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (POCSO Act) and was sentenced to undergo life imprisonment.

Against the conviction by trial court, the appellant appealed to the High Court in May 2019.

However, it was argued by the convict that during the course of last eighteen months, four division benches of the High Court comprising different combination of four judges recused from hearing the appeal.

The convict placed reliance on Section 374(4) CrPC to argue that as per the statutory mandate of hearing appeal against conviction in rape case, his appeal should had been disposed of within six months.

However, since the same has not happened due to continuous recusal of benches, the appellant-convict sought direction for expeditious disposal of his appeal before the High Court.

The Supreme Court allowed the plea and directed the High Court to speed up the hearing.

Senior Advocate Rana Mukherjee, advocates Rajesh Kumar and Sukant Vikram, appeared for convict.

[Read Order]