Sections 375 and 376 CrPC: No Appeal After Guilty Plea and in Petty Cases

Sections 375 and 376 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 ("CrPC") restricted the ordinary right of a convicted person to appeal in two situations: conviction on a plea of guilty and specified petty cases. This article explains the provisions as they stood immediately before the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 ("BNSS") came into force on 1 July 2024.

Meaning of "appeal" under the CrPC

An appeal is a statutory remedy by which a competent appellate court is asked to examine a judgment, conviction, sentence or appealable order of a lower court. The right of appeal is governed by the Code and other applicable law; it does not arise merely because a party is dissatisfied with a decision.

Section 375 CrPC: No appeal in certain cases when accused pleads guilty

Section 375 operated notwithstanding Section 374, which dealt with appeals from convictions. Where an accused pleaded guilty and was convicted on that plea, the section restricted an appeal as follows:

Practical effect of Section 375

The provision distinguished a challenge to the conviction from a challenge to the sentence. Once the conviction was founded on the accused's plea of guilty, Section 375 barred or limited the statutory appeal in the manner stated above. In the specified subordinate courts, the Code nevertheless preserved an appeal concerning the extent or legality of the sentence.

Section 376 CrPC: No appeal in petty cases

Section 376 also operated notwithstanding Section 374. It barred an appeal by a convicted person where the court imposed only a sentence falling within the limits specified by the section.

When the proviso permitted an appeal

The proviso allowed an appeal against such a sentence where another punishment was combined with it. At the same time, a sentence did not become appealable merely because the convicted person was ordered to furnish security to keep the peace, because imprisonment in default of payment of fine was directed, or because more than one sentence of fine was imposed while the total fine remained within the statutory limit applicable to the case.

Sections 374, 375 and 376 should be read together

Section 374 created the principal routes of appeal from convictions, while Sections 375 and 376 placed express restrictions on that appellate remedy. The words "notwithstanding anything contained in Section 374" gave Sections 375 and 376 overriding effect within their stated fields.

Position after the BNSS came into force

From 1 July 2024, the BNSS replaced the CrPC as the principal criminal procedure code, subject to its saving provisions. Section 416 BNSS corresponds to Section 375 CrPC, while Section 417 BNSS corresponds to Section 376 CrPC. One notable change in Section 417 is that the High Court imprisonment threshold for the petty-case appeal bar is three months, instead of six months under Section 376 CrPC. The BNSS provisions should therefore be consulted for proceedings governed by the new law.

Key points

• Section 375 restricted an appeal where conviction followed a plea of guilty.
• For convictions by the specified subordinate courts, a challenge to the extent or legality of sentence remained available under Section 375.
• Section 376 barred appeals in the specified petty cases when the sentence remained within its stated limits.
• The proviso to Section 376 preserved an appeal where another punishment was combined with the specified sentence, subject to the statutory exceptions.
• For the current procedural regime, Sections 416 and 417 BNSS should be read with the applicable saving provisions.

This article is a general explanation of the statutory provisions and should be read with the applicable enactment, amendments and judicial decisions relevant to the facts of a particular case.