Memorandum of Appeal and Revision

A shop owner in Andheri is convicted by a Magistrate for a cheque offence and sentenced to a year’s imprisonment and a fine. He thinks the judge misread the evidence. The next morning his advocate says there are two possible moves, an appeal and a revision, and that choosing the wrong one can cost him the case. Both ask a higher court to look at what the lower court did, but they do not ask the same question. What is the difference, and how is each one drafted?

In two minutes

An appeal is a right, given only by statute, to have a higher court re-examine a judgment or order on facts and law, while a revision is a supervisory power of the High Court or Sessions Judge to examine the correctness, legality or propriety of a finding, sentence or order, and to check the regularity of proceedings; under the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita 2023 (BNSS) appeals run from s.413 and revision from s.438.

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