Referring to Section 531 of the BNSS, 2023, the Punjab and Haryana high court has said it explicitly specifies that pending appeals shall be disposed of or continued as if the new law had not yet taken effect, following the provisions of the CrPC.
The Punjab and Haryana high court (HC) has said the petitions filed in the HC registry before July 1 and still pending will not be adjudicated under the recently implemented new law — the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS).
The bench of justice Anoop Chitkara said that Section 531 of the BNSS made it clear that all the appeals, applications, trials, inquiries or investigations pending on or before June 30 would continue to be governed under the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), the old law.
The court’s order came in a cheque bounce case. The petitioner had approached the high court on December 15 last year against conviction. However, he could not file appeal within the statutory period and had sought condonation of delay in filing the appeal. His appeal was yet to be taken up, but in the meantime new law was implemented on July 1.
The court referred to Section 531 of the BNSS, 2023, and said it explicitly specifies that pending appeals shall be disposed of or continued as if the new law had not yet taken effect, following the provisions of the CrPC.