What Is a Criminal Revision and When Should You File It?

What is a criminal revision, in plain words?

A criminal revision is a request to a higher court to call for the record of a lower criminal court and check one thing: was the order legal, correct and proper, and were the proceedings regular? The power sits in Section 438 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita 2023 (old Section 397 CrPC), and the High Court's powers in deciding the revision are in Section 442 (old Section 401). Both the High Court and the Sessions Judge have this power over magistrates; only the High Court has it over Sessions Courts.

Think of it as supervision rather than a second trial. An appeal lets the appellate court go through the evidence again and reach its own conclusion. A revision does not. The revisional court interferes when the order ignores the law, rests on no material, was passed without jurisdiction, overlooks a document that changes everything, or reaches a result no court applying its mind could reach. If two views are possible and the trial court took one of them, the revision usually fails.

That is why the most common question across the table is not 'Was the order wrong?' but 'What kind of wrong was it?' An order that is wrong in law or on the face of the record is a revision case. An order that is wrong only because you have a better version of the facts is a trial case.

Appeal, revision or Section 528: a quick comparison

Orders you can usually challenge in revision

• Summoning orders in complaint cases. An order issuing process to you can be revised, because if it had gone the other way the case against you would have ended. Our guide on challenging a summoning order in a complaint case covers that route in detail.
• Orders framing charge or refusing discharge. These decide whether you face a full trial. Revision lies where an ingredient of the offence is missing from the material. See our guide on seeking discharge before charges are framed for the trial court stage.
• Orders discharging the accused or dismissing a complaint. These are the complainant's main revisions; the court can order further inquiry under Section 439 BNSS (old Section 398 CrPC).
• Appellate or revisional orders of a Sessions Court. For example, a Sessions Court decision in a cheque bounce appeal goes to the Delhi High Court in revision.
• Convictions in petty cases where no appeal lies. Section 417 BNSS (old Section 376 CrPC) bars appeals in some small-sentence cases; revision fills that gap.
• Orders on custody of seized property and maintenance orders. Superdari refusals and orders under Section 144 BNSS (old Section 125 CrPC) are commonly revised; family court maintenance orders reach the High Court in revision.

Orders you usually cannot challenge in revision

• Purely interlocutory orders. Section 438(2) BNSS bars revision of orders that only move the case along: adjournments, dates for evidence, routine directions to produce documents.
• Orders on bail. Bail refusals are not revised; you apply afresh to the higher court under Section 483 BNSS (old Section 439 CrPC).
• A conviction you could have appealed. If an appeal lay and you did not file it, Section 442 BNSS does not let you use revision instead.
• An acquittal, to convert it into a conviction. Section 442(3) BNSS forbids that. The victim's or the State's remedy against acquittal is an appeal.
• A second revision by the same person. Section 438(3) BNSS allows one revision only, before either the Sessions Judge or the High Court.

Section 438 BNSS and the other revision provisions

When should you file? Timing decides more than people think

The legal answer is within ninety days of the order. The practical answer is as soon as you have the certified copy and a clear ground. A revision filed in week three against a summoning order, before the trial court has moved, is heard by a judge who can still stop the case at its root. The same revision filed in month eleven, with condonation of delay and two prosecution witnesses already examined, looks like an afterthought, and the High Court may simply leave your points for final arguments.

Sequence matters too. Under the BNSS, a discharge application in the trial court must be made within sixty days of the stage set by Sections 250 and 262. If you skip discharge and go straight to revision against the order taking cognizance, you may lose the chance to put your points to the trial judge first. In many cases the better order is: discharge application first, then revision against the order on charge.

Do not file a revision just because the trial court passed an order you dislike. Ask whether the order closes a door permanently. A refusal to summon a defence witness can often be raised again later; a charge for murder where the facts show at most hurt cannot be fixed at the end of a five-year trial. Revision is best kept for orders where waiting would cause harm that the final judgment cannot undo.

When Advocate B.K. Singh is shown an order and asked whether to file a revision, the first thing he writes down is the date of the order and the date the certified copy was applied for and received. If more than seventy days have gone, the conversation turns at once to drafting, because a condonation application takes its own time to argue and weakens the start of the case.

Sessions Court or Delhi High Court: which forum hears your revision

Against a magistrate's order, you can choose either the Sessions Court or the High Court. Against an order of a Sessions Court, whether as trial court or as appellate court, only the High Court has revisional power. For trial courts in Delhi (Tis Hazari, Patiala House, Saket, Karkardooma, Rohini, Dwarka and Rouse Avenue), the High Court is the Delhi High Court at Sher Shah Road. A revision petition in the Delhi High Court is registered as a CRL.REV.P. and heard by a single judge sitting on the criminal roster.

The choice is strategic, and you get only one. The Sessions Court at the same complex is closer, often quicker, and suits an order with a single clear mistake. The High Court suits orders that raise a point of law, cases with several accused summoned on one complaint, and cases where you may also need the High Court's inherent power under Section 528 BNSS (old Section 482 CrPC), which the Sessions Court does not have. Our guide on what Section 528 BNSS covers explains that power.

Geography follows the trial court, not your address. If your case is in a court at Gurugram or Faridabad, the revision goes to the Punjab and Haryana High Court; if at Surajpur (Gautam Buddh Nagar) or Ghaziabad, to the Allahabad High Court. Living in Delhi does not change that. NRIs and people outside Delhi can still file through a lawyer, with the vakalatnama and affidavit signed abroad and attested as the rules require.

Who can file a revision, and who must be heard

Any person affected by the order can file: the accused, the complainant, the victim, the State, and in property matters a third person whose rights the order affects. The revisional court can also act on its own if the record comes to its notice, though in practice almost every revision in Delhi starts with a petition.

The other side must be heard before an adverse order. Section 442(2) BNSS says no order prejudicing the accused can be passed without giving him a chance to be heard. The Supreme Court in Manharibhai Muljibhai Kakadia v. Shaileshbhai Mohanbhai Patel (2012) held that even a person not yet summoned is entitled to be heard when the complainant challenges dismissal of the complaint. So a complainant should expect the proposed accused to appear and oppose, and an accused should expect the State and often the complainant to file replies.

In cases prosecuted by the police, the State is always a party, represented in the Delhi High Court by the Additional Public Prosecutor. Where the case was investigated by the CBI or another central agency, its own counsel appears. The complainant is usually added as a respondent in an accused's revision, and must be served.

How a revision petition moves in the Delhi High Court

1. Get the certified copy and the record

   Apply in the trial court's copying agency for a certified copy of the impugned order. Collect the complaint or FIR, chargesheet, documents, order sheets and every application filed so far.

2. Settle the grounds

   Identify the legal error in one or two sentences. A revision with twenty grounds usually has none; a revision with two clear grounds gets read.

3. Draft and file

   The petition, a list of dates, the impugned order, the trial record and any stay application are e-filed. An application for condonation of delay is added if ninety days have passed.

4. Advance copy and scrutiny

   A copy goes to the State's counsel at the High Court, and the Registry checks the papers. Defects must be cured before listing.

5. First hearing

   The judge may issue notice, call for the trial court record, grant a stay or exemption, or dismiss the revision if it shows no case. Many revisions are decided in the first few minutes on whether notice should issue.

6. Replies and arguments

   The State and the complainant file replies; a rejoinder may follow. The matter is argued, sometimes over several dates, and the judgment is pronounced or reserved.

7. After the order

   File a copy of the High Court's order in the trial court. If the revision is allowed with remand, the trial court decides afresh; if dismissed, the trial continues and the next step, if any, is a petition before the Supreme Court.

Our page on filing a criminal revision in the Delhi High Court sets out the drafting and filing practice in more detail.

Time limits, typical time and court fee

Papers you need before a revision is drafted

• Certified copy of the order you want to challenge, with the date of application and delivery of the copy.
• The FIR or private complaint, with all annexures.
• The chargesheet and its documents, if one has been filed.
• Pre-summoning evidence in complaint cases: the complainant's statement and witness statements.
• All order sheets of the trial court from the first date.
• Every application you or the other side filed, with replies.
• Any earlier order of the Sessions Court or High Court in the same case, including bail orders.
• Your ID, address proof and a signed vakalatnama; for NRIs, an attested affidavit and passport copy.

Will the trial court stop while the revision is pending?

No, not unless the revisional court says so. Filing a revision does not freeze the trial. If you want proceedings paused, ask for a stay in a separate application and explain the harm in continuing. Courts are cautious here; the Supreme Court has repeatedly discouraged long stays of criminal trials. The Delhi High Court often grants something narrower: exemption from personal appearance, a direction that the trial may continue but no final order be passed, or a stay of one step such as framing of charge. Our page on stay of summons or trial proceedings explains these options.

Until an order is passed, keep attending the trial court or file an exemption application through your lawyer. People who miss dates because 'the matter is in the High Court' sometimes come back to a bailable or non-bailable warrant, and the revision then has to be argued alongside an application to cancel the warrant.

What the High Court can and cannot do at the end

If the revision succeeds, the High Court can set aside the summoning order, discharge the accused, alter or quash a charge, order further inquiry into a dismissed complaint, or send the matter back to the trial court with directions to decide afresh. In maintenance and property matters, it can modify the amount or the terms. In a petty conviction where no appeal lay, it can set aside the conviction or reduce the sentence.

There are firm limits. It cannot convert an acquittal into a conviction. It cannot enhance a sentence or pass any order against the accused without hearing him. It will rarely reassess evidence unless the finding is perverse. And where the trial court took one of two possible views, the High Court will usually leave it alone even if it might itself have taken the other view.

If the revision is dismissed, the order below stands and the trial continues. The remaining remedy is a special leave petition before the Supreme Court under Article 136, which is discretionary and taken up only in a small share of cases. Our guide on going to the Supreme Court against a Delhi High Court judgment explains when that is worth considering.

Signs a revision is the wrong move

• Your argument is that a witness is lying. That is a trial question. Revision will not test credibility.
• The order is a routine step. Adjournments and directions for evidence are interlocutory and cannot be revised.
• You already lost a revision in the Sessions Court. A second revision is barred; only an exceptional Section 528 petition remains.
• An appeal lies. Against a conviction after trial, file the appeal; our page on appeals against conviction explains it.
• The whole case is an abuse, not just one order. A quashing petition under Section 528 may fit better than a revision against a single order.
• The trial is nearly over. Late revisions on points that can be argued at final hearing often just delay matters.

Revision for complainants and victims

Complainants use revision more often than they realise. If the magistrate dismissed your complaint without examining your witnesses, refused to send your complaint for investigation under Section 175(3) BNSS (old Section 156(3) CrPC) without reasons, or discharged the accused while ignoring documents on record, revision is the remedy. The High Court can direct further inquiry or tell the trial court to reconsider.

Two cautions. First, the accused, even if not yet summoned, will be heard, so prepare for opposition. Second, revision is not the remedy against an acquittal after trial; that is an appeal by the victim under Section 413 BNSS (old Section 372 proviso) or by the State. Our guide on what rights a victim has in a criminal appeal explains that path.

When Advocate B.K. Singh acts for a complainant in revision, he marks every page of the trial record the magistrate did not refer to, and lists them in one table in the petition. Judges respond to a missed document far better than to a general complaint that the order is 'against the weight of evidence'.

What to do this week

Write down the date of the order and count ninety days. Apply for the certified copy today, and keep the receipt that shows the application date. Collect the complaint or FIR, the chargesheet, the order sheets and every application filed. Note the next date in the trial court and arrange to appear or seek exemption. Decide with your lawyer whether the Sessions Court or the High Court is the better forum, remembering that you get only one revision.

If the order is a summoning order or an order on charge, ask whether a discharge application or a quashing petition should come first. For the filing practice at the High Court, see our page on criminal revision petitions in the Delhi High Court.

For advice on whether a revision is the right remedy against the order in your papers, or for updates on how courts are reading the BNSS revision provisions, contact Advocate B.K. Singh.