Question whether Section 42A of POCSO Act prevails over Section 14A of the SC / ST Atrocities Act which provides for appeal remedy against an order granting or refusing bail.
Interplay of Section 42A of POCSO Act and Section 14A of the Scheduled Castes / Tribes Atrocities Act in the matter of grant of refusal of bail and abrogation of right of victim to appeal remedy under Section 14A.
Crime was registered against Aniket Labade for offences under Sections 363, 376, 376 (3) of IPC, Sections 3 & 4 of the POCSO and later on, added the offence of Section 3 of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.
The application under Section 438 of the Cr PC was rejected.
The application for anticipatory bail was filed in the High Court.
The informant / mother of the victim raised an objection to the maintainability of the said application.
Section 42A of the POCSO Act is in addition to any other law but Section 20 of SCST Atrocities Act overrides other laws.
POCSO Act does not provide remedy of appeal against an order granting or refusal bail but sub-section (2) of Section 14A of SCST Act provides for such an appeal remedy.
The question before the Full Bench was whether Section 42A of POCSO Act shall prevail over Section 14A of the Atrocities Act.
HELD that in a case involving offences under both the Acts, a victim does not have right to appeal under Section 14A of the SCST Act, 1989.
Full Bench Judgment dated 19.12.2023 in Anticipatory Bail Application No.1005 of 2023 with Criminal Application No.2713 of 2023 of Aniket Shahadev Labade Vs. State of Maharashtra and another
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