Supreme Court: Under which circumstances, doctrine of merger is applicable to order of criminal revisional court?

 This Court in Shankar Ramchandra Abhyankar v. Krishnaji Dattatreya Bapat, (1969) 2 SCC 74 observed thus:

“6. Now when the aid of the High Court is invoked on the revisional side it is done because it is a superior court and it can interfere for the purpose of rectifying the error of the court below. Section 115 of the Code of Civil Procedure circumscribes the limits of that jurisdiction but the jurisdiction which is being exercised is a part of the general appellate jurisdiction of the High Court as a superior court. It is only one of the modes of exercising power conferred by the statute; basically and fundamentally it is the appellate jurisdiction of the High Court which is being invoked and exercised in a wider and larger sense. We do not, therefore, consider that the principle of merger of orders of inferior courts in those of superior Courts would be affected or would become inapplicable by making a distinction between a petition for revision and an appeal.

7. It may be useful to refer to certain other decisions which by analogy can be of some assistance in deciding the point before us. In U.J.S. Chopra v. State of Bombay [1955 SCC OnLine SC 57 : AIR 1955 SC 633], the principle of merger was considered with reference to Section 439 of the Criminal Procedure Code which confers revisional jurisdiction on the High Court. In the majority judgment it was held, inter alia, that a judgment pronounced by the High Court in the exercise of its appellate or revisional jurisdiction after issue of a notice and a full hearing, in the presence of both the parties would replace the judgment of the lower court thus constituting the judgment of the High Court—the only final judgment to be executed in accordance with law by the Court below.[…]”{Para 88}

In the Supreme Court of India

(Before J.B. Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, JJ.)

Jamin and Another  Vs  State of Uttar Pradesh and Another 

Criminal Appeal No. 1184 of 2025 (Arising Out of SLP (Crl.) No. 6320 of 2024)

Decided on March 6, 2025

Citation: 2025 SCC OnLine SC 506.

Read full judgment here: Click here.

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