Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 – s.482 and s.397 – Appellantwife filed a petition u/s.482 CrPC in the High Court seeking enhancement of interim maintenance – The said petition has been dismissed by the High Court by the order impugned on the ground that it is not maintainable as the appellant-wife has a remedy of a revision u/s.397 CrPC – Correctness: Held: In a catena of decisions, it has been provided that nomenclature of a petition is immaterial and for doing substantive justice, the High Court can always convert a petition u/s.482 CrPC to a revision u/s.397 CrPC and vice versa – The approach of the High Court in dismissing the petition filed by the appellant u/s.482 CrPC on the hyper technical ground that she had to avail the remedy of revision cannot be appreciated – Nothing in CrPC, not even s.397, can affect the amplitude of the inherent powers preserved in so many terms by the language of s.482 CrPC – Even if the High Court was of the view that the appellant should have invoked the jurisdiction u/s.397 CrPC for seeking enhancement of interim maintenance, it ought not to have non-suited the appellant only on the ground of alternative remedy – The judicious approach would have been to convert the petition u/s.482 CrPC into a revision u/s.397 CrPC and to have decided the same as per law – Therefore, the impugned order of the High Court is set aside and the matter is remanded to the High Court with a further direction to convert the petition u/s.482 CrPC as a criminal revision u/s.397 CrPC and decide it in accordance with law after affording opportunity of hearing to the parties. [Paras 7, 9, 10, 11]
As published in the Supreme Court Reports, Supreme Court of India. Headnotes prepared by: Ankit Gyan. Text from the Indian Supreme Court Judgments open data set (Dattam Labs), CC BY 4.0.
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