My submission is that I do not support sub-clause (a) and (b), though I support sub-clause (c) and clause (2) of the amendment. What I beg to submit is that there is enough chance, enough opportunity, for the accused to cross-examine and to test the evidence and then to put the whole case before the Session Court, and after the Sessions Court, he has got the right of appeal to the High Court. Sub clause (a) says that if the High Court has on appeal reversed the order of acquittal of an accused, the accused should have at least one right of appeal. My submission is that it is not the accused alone who is the aggrieved party. In the case of a child murdered in the street, the mother of the child is also an aggrieved party. If the accused has a right of appeal on conviction, the mother of the child murdered in the street has equal right to go before the Court and say, “the man has murdered my child. I have a grievance against the fellow. The stability of the State demands, the cause of prevention of crime demands that the man must be hanged.” It is wrong to say that the accused alone is an aggrieved party and as such on conviction must have the right of appeal. With equal force, with equal reason it can be pleaded that the aggrieved party is the women whose child has been murdered and as such she has got as much right to go to the superior court and say that the accused must be changed.
