Victim has Right to Appeal against acquittal of accused: Supreme Court

Reiterating that victim has a right to file the appeal against the acquittal of the accused without seeking leave to Appeal, the Supreme Court observed that such appeal has to be dealt with as a regular appeal.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has reaffirmed that a victim of a crime has the right to appeal against the acquittal of the accused. Such an appeal has to be treated like a regular appeal and no leave has to be sought in such a situation.

The two-judge bench comprising Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice KM Joseph passed this order in an appeal against an order of Allahabad High Court.

The court today set aside the High Court order which dismissed the appeal of a victim saying that leave had not been granted to the government file the appeal.

The counsel appearing on the victim's behalf argued today that "Since the right to appeal would be available, it is different from the appeal filed by the state seeking leave to appeal and,thus the appeal filed by the victim in the present case ought not to have been dismissed at the threshold only on the ground that no leave has been granted to the state to appeal against the order of acquittal".