Reference and Revision-Section 395 to 405

You have seen a teacher who, without being asked by anyone, walks into the next classroom because something sounds wrong. That is close to revision. A higher court can ask for the file of a lower court, even when no one has appealed, to check that the decision was correct, legal and proper. Reference is different: there the lower court itself stops and says, 'I am not sure about this point of law, please tell me'. Why does criminal procedure need both, when it already has appeals?

In two minutes

Reference lets a trial court send a question of law (or the invalidity of a statute) to the High Court for decision; revision lets the High Court or Sessions Judge call for a lower court's record to check its correctness, legality or propriety, but not to turn an acquittal into a conviction.

The rest of this chapter

The full explanation, the cheat sheet, every previous-year question at every mark weight, the quiz and the answer skeletons are part of Criminal Procedure Code 1973, Juvenile Justice Act 2015 and POCSO Act 2012 on LexBlox Semester. Sign in to unlock the subject, or read Module 1 of Legal Language and Writing free.