S.362 CrPC Can Be Used Only To Correct Clerical Errors : Supreme Court Criticises Allahabad HC For Modifying Murder Conviction

The Supreme Court recently disapproved of the Allahabad High Court invoking Section 362 of the Code of Criminal Procedure to modify the High Court's judgment in a criminal appeal by converting the conviction under Section 302 IPC (murder) to Section 304 Part II (culpable homicide not amounting to murder).

The Court underscored that as per Section 362 of the CrPC, only clerical errors in a judgment can be corrected, and this provision cannot be used to make substantive changes.

The provision reads as follows : Court not to alter judgment.- Save as otherwise provided by this Code or by any other law for the time being in force, no Court, when it has signed its judgment or final order disposing of a case, shall alter or review the same except to correct a clerical or arithmetical error.

In May 2018, the High Court dismissed the criminal appeals, confirming the conviction of the accused persons for the offence of murder and other charges. Later, an application was filed by the accused, styled as a "correction application". In February 2019, the High Court allowed the "Correction Application", converting the conviction to a lesser offence and reducing the sentence. This was challenged before the Supreme Court.

Though the High Court had claimed that it was correcting only a "clerical error", the Supreme Court noted that the entire reasoning had been changed in the second order. 

A bench comprising Justice BR Gavai and Justice Augustine George Masih noted that similar orders passed by High Courts were set aside in the precedents Smt. Sooraj Devi v. Pyare Lal and Another (1981) 1 SCC 500 and Naresh and Others v. State of Uttar Pradesh (1981) 3 SCCC 74.

The Court observed :

"It could thus clearly be seen that this Court had observed that the similar exercise undertaken by the High Court in that case was in contravention of the provisions of Section 362 of Cr.P.C. This Court had expressed its great concern that the High Court should have committed this grievous error. We fail to understand as to how the High Court, in the present case also, in spite of the plain and unambigious words used in the provisions of Section 362 of Cr.P.C., has committed such an error."

Case : Ramyash @ Lal Bahadur v. The State of Uttar Pradesh and Another Etc

Citation : 2025 LiveLaw (SC) 531

Click here to read the judgment