The Bombay High Court (BHC), dealing with the question of whether Appellate Court has the power to condone the delay beyond the statutory period of 90 days for filing an appeal under Section 21(5) of the National Investigation Agency Act, 2008 (NIA Act), has held that 2nd proviso of Section 21(5) of the NIA Act has to be interpreted so as to read ‘shall’ as ‘may’, and as such the provision is directory, therefore, vesting discretion in the Appellate Court to condone delay on sufficient cause being shown. Further, the BHC noted that if only on the prescribed statutory bar in the provision an Appeal is not heard, then, “the right of an accused, whose personal liberty stands curtailed by a judgment/sentence/order passed by the Special Court, would stand seriously jeopardized.”
