Allahabad HC: Order framing charges under NIA Act not interlocutory, appeal lies before High Court

The Allahabad High Court has ruled that an order framing charges passed by a Special Court under the National Investigation Agency Act, 2008, is not an interlocutory order and can be challenged by way of an appeal before the High Court under Section 21 of the Act. A bench of Justice Subhash Vidyarthi differed from the Delhi High Court's view in Shahid Yousuf v. NIA, which had held such an order to be interlocutory and not appealable.

The court was hearing a petition challenging a charge framed under Section 121-A IPC and the Official Secrets Act by the Special Judge, NIA, Lucknow. The State objected to the maintainability of the petition, arguing the petitioner had a statutory remedy of appeal. The petitioner relied on the Supreme Court's 1979 decision in VC Shukla v. State, which treated framing of charges as interlocutory under the now-repealed Special Courts Act.

Justice Vidyarthi held that the VC Shukla ruling, based on a different statute, does not apply to the NIA Act. Citing the Supreme Court's later three-judge bench decisions in Asian Resurfacing and Sanjay Kumar Rai, which held that an order framing charges is neither purely interlocutory nor final, the court concluded that an appeal lies under Section 21 of the NIA Act.