Whether revision is maintainable if FIR is registered on basis of order passed by Magistrate U/s 156 (3) of Cr.P.C. ?

(Para 13) We may make now a reference to Section 397 and Section 401 of the Code. The power of revision under Section 397 will have to be read with Section 398 of the Code. Firstly, we may note here that power of the High Court or the Sessions Court under sub Section 3 of Section 397 is of calling for the record of proceedings before any subordinate Criminal Court for the purposes of satisfying itself about correctness, legality or propriety of any finding, sentence or order recorded or passed in any proceeding before such subordinate Court. Thus, the power under Section 397 is confined to testing the legality, validity and propriety of the orders passed by the Courts which are subordinate to the High Court or the Sessions Court, as the case may be. Secondly, on conjoint reading of Sections 398, 399 and 401, it follows that there is no power conferred on the Revisional Court to quash FIR registered by the Police in accordance with sub-section (1) of Section 154 of the Code and the investigation carried out on the basis of that and to quash the criminal proceedings on the basis of charge sheet, which may be eventually filed. Therefore, in a case where an order made under Sub-section 3 of Section 156 culminates into registration of FIR, the Revisional Court is powerless to pass an order of quashing the FIR and quashing a charge sheet filed on the basis of the FIR. Therefore, in a case where on the basis of an order under sub Section 3 of Section 156 of the Code, FIR is registered, the remedy of revision under the Code for challenging the order under sub Section 3 of Section 156 will not be an efficacious remedy at all. For the reasons which we have recorded above, even in a case where a revision application is entertained against an order under sub Section 3 of Section 156 where FIR on the basis of the said order is already registered, in exercise of revisional jurisdiction, neither this Court nor Sessions Court can quash the FIR and proceedings subsequent to the FIR, as what can be gone into by the Court in revisional jurisdiction is the issue of legality, validity and propriety of the orders passed by a subordinate Criminal Court.

(Para14) Therefore, we accept the submission made by the learned counsel for the Applicants that a revision under Section 397 of the Code is not at all an efficacious remedy in view of registration of FIR on the basis of an order under Sub-section (3) of Section 156 of the Code.

CASE DETAILS :-

IN THE HIGH COURT OF BOMBAY

Case No. : Criminal Application No. 152 of 2015

Case Title : Kailash Dattatraya Jadhav Vs. State of Maharashtra and Ors.

Coram: Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and P.D. Naik, JJ.

Dated : 04.05.2016