Photo of Poorva Bhatia

Associate in the General Corporate Practice at the Delhi NCR office of Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas. Poorva’s practice area covers general corporate and commercial laws including acquisitions and private equity and advising clients on regulatory and compliance related issues. She also works in the hospitality sector and can be reached at poorva.bhatia@cyrilshroff.com

Criminal Law

Introduction

The powers of revision serve to provide an important avenue to an accused or the prosecution seeking to remedy any patent defect in the finding of a trial court through different stages of a criminal trial. However, a key stakeholder in a criminal trial, as has been recognized by the Supreme Court of India, from time to time is also the complainant,[1] who may also be the victim of the alleged criminal act. It would, therefore, not be out of place to assess the role that a complainant/informant plays in revisionary proceedings before a superior court. It is this aspect that forms the subject matter of the present blog. In an effort to situate the role of a complainant in criminal revision proceedings, in the following segments, we discuss: (i) the scope and powers of a revision court; (ii) the locus standi of a complainant/informant; (iii) the circumstances whereunder a complainant/informant is permitted to intervene in revision proceedings and the extent of such intervention and (iv) nuances surrounding  a revision application which has already been preferred by the State.Continue Reading Intervention in Criminal Revision Petitions by the Complainant