Second appeal by road accident victim against order of trial court acquitting accused not maintainable: Karnataka HC

Following this, Mahesh filed an appeal before the sessions court, which also rejected his appeal and confirmed the trial court order acquitting Gunderao. Thereafter, Mahesh filed a second appeal under Section 413 (no appeal shall lie from any judgment unless otherwise provided) of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS). The high court registry raised a preliminary objection on the maintainability of the appeal.

Referring to the said provision, Justice Rai said, “The language employed in Section 413 of BNSS would be restricted only to mean ‘an appeal’, where the appeal ordinarily lies, and another appeal cannot be preferred by the same appellant under the same provision.”

The bench noted that initially the trial court had acquitted the respondent/accused, and the said judgment was challenged by the victim/appellant before the appellate court, which affirmed the judgment of acquittal passed by the trial court.

Sustaining the objection raised by the registry on maintainability of the appeal, the bench said, “Second appeal by the appellant/victim is not maintainable.”