Legal Provisions of Section 484 of Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (Cr.P.C.), India.
Consequent to the coming into force of the present Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 w.e.f. 1st April 1974, the old Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898 has been repealed from that date. Sub-sections (2) and (3) of this section are related to the applicability of new code to the disposal of criminal cases during the transitional period. Since it is now more than thirty years that the present Code has been operative, the judicial decisions dealing with the ambit and scope of Section 484 have lost their practical significance.
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Therefore, there is no point in referring to them in the comment. However, the case of Virendra Singh v. State of Uttar Pradesh, decided by the Allahabad High Court may be cited as an illustration of the effect of repeal of CrPC 1898 by Section 484.
In this case the validity of the U.P. Government Notification No. 777/VIII-94(2)-87, dated July 31, 1989 published in the UP Gazette Extra, Part 4, Section (b) dated 2nd August 1989 making the offence under Section 506 IPC as cognizable and non- bailable was challenged under Section 484.
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The High Court of Allahabad held the said notification to be illegal on the ground that the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 is a parliamentary enactment and any change therein can be affected only by an amended Act or by an ordinance, and not by a simple notification. Moreover, a Central Act cannot be amended by a State Act (in this case U.P.) unless the assent of the President is obtained vide Article 254 (2) of the Constitution.
The said notification of 1989 purported to amend a Contract Act i.e. CrPC without President’s assent and, therefore, is liable to be struck down. The Court pointed out yet another reason to invalidate the said notification. Section 10 of the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 1982 does not empower the State Government to amend by notification any part of the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973.
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Under these circumstances the Notification of the UP State Government making the offence under Section 506 IPC as cognizable and non-bailable was held to be illegal and the offence under that section has to be treated as bailable and non-cognizable as provided in the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973.