CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court has held that a convict’s statutory and constitutional right to have an appeal heard on merits cannot be defeated merely because the appellant or his lawyer remains absent.
Justice V Narasingh made the observation while allowing a criminal revision petition filed by Basanta Kumar Pal, whose appeal against his 2013 conviction had been dismissed for default more than a decade ago. “The inviolable right of a convict to have his appeal heard on merits cannot be extinguished by dismissing the appeal for non-prosecution,” the court said.
Stressing that liberty curtailed by conviction could be regulated only through due process of law, Justice Narasingh observed, “Procedure is meant to facilitate justice, not to strangulate it.”
Pal, in his 50s, had been convicted by the Judicial Magistrate First Class, Cuttack, in a 2003 case under Sections 454 (house-trespass) and 380 (theft) of IPC on July 30, 2013 and sentenced to one year rigorous imprisonment. While he was on bail, his appeal was dismissed for default in 2014 as he remained absent despite repeated calls. After he was taken into custody in 2016, he moved the High Court the same year.