What is the difference between the Magistrate Court, Sessions Court, and Bombay High Court?

The Magistrate Court handles the initial stages of nearly every case and the trial of less serious offences. The Sessions Court tries graver offences and is generally the first forum for bail in non-bailable matters. The Bombay High Court handles quashing, appeals, revisions, and bail under special statutes with enhanced thresholds.

Does the 2023 shift from IPC/CrPC to BNS/BNSS/BSA affect an ongoing case?

Generally, matters registered before 1 July 2024 continue under the old framework for that FIR; matters registered after fall under BNS/BNSS/BSA. This should be confirmed for your specific matter rather than assumed.

How is bail different from quashing?

Bail addresses custody u2014 whether the accused is in jail during the case, not whether the case continues. Quashing, under Section 528 BNSS, asks the High Court to end the proceeding entirely because it is legally unsustainable. The two are often pursued separately, sometimes together.

What should I bring to a first consultation?

Whatever documentation exists u2014 the FIR copy, any police notice, prior correspondence, and a clear timeline as you understand it. A consultation can still assess the situation without documents in hand.

Can a criminal case be settled or compounded?

Some offences are compoundable by law, letting parties settle and the court record that to end the case. Many serious offences are not, regardless of the parties' wishes u2014 this depends entirely on the specific sections involved.

What happens if the police refuse to register an FIR?

Options exist, including approaching a superior officer or the Magistrate directly, but the right course depends on the specific facts.

Do you handle matters outside Pune?

This practice is based in Pune and appears before Pune's Magistrate and Sessions Courts and the Bombay High Court. Matters connected to these forums, including cases originating elsewhere but appealable at the Bombay High Court, can be discussed case by case.

How much does criminal trial defence cost?

The first consultation is free. Trial representation fees depend on the stage of the case and number of hearings expected. See the Legal Fees & Consultation Charges page for how fees are structured.

Criminal Defence Lawyer in Pune

Criminal Defence in Pune

A criminal case rarely announces itself politely. It arrives as a phone call about an FIR, a police notice under the BNSS, or a summons that turns an ordinary week into a legal emergency. What happens in the first days — who is consulted, what is filed, how quickly — shapes the case more than almost anything that follows.

This practice covers criminal defence across the full arc of a case: pre-arrest protection, bail at every stage, investigation-stage representation, trial defence before the Magistrate and Sessions Courts, and appellate work before the Bombay High Court. Adv. Akash Chikate practices under the guidance of Adv. Vipul Dushing, appearing regularly across Pune's district judiciary and the Bombay High Court since 2021.

Since 1 July 2024, India's criminal law operates under a recodified framework: the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) replaced the IPC, the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) replaced the CrPC, and the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam (BSA) replaced the Evidence Act. The substance carries over, but section numbers have changed throughout — an outdated IPC or CrPC citation in a filing is no longer just dated, it can be simply wrong. Every matter here is built on the current BNS/BNSS/BSA numbering.

The Breadth of a Criminal Defence Practice

"Criminal defence" is not one skill applied uniformly — it is a set of related but distinct competencies, each triggered by a different stage or statute. This practice is organised around that reality:

Pre-arrest and bail — anticipatory bail under Section 482 BNSS, and regular bail applications at the Magistrate, Sessions, and High Court level.
Quashing proceedings — petitions under Section 528 BNSS (successor to Section 482 CrPC) seeking to quash an FIR that is legally unsustainable, most often in settled matrimonial or civil-flavoured disputes.
Special statute offences — NDPS Act matters carrying their own bail thresholds and mandatory minimums; POCSO Act matters handled with the care their victim-protective framework demands; and other special-statute work including MCOCA and Economic Offences Wing matters.
Matrimonial and domestic offences — defence under Section 85 BNS (successor to Section 498A IPC) and related family law disputes.
Financial and cheque offences — cheque bounce under Section 138, NI Act, and financial fraud matters.
Cyber offences — matters under the IT Act intersecting with BNS fraud and forgery provisions.
Discharge applications — seeking discharge under BNSS where the material on record, even taken at its highest, discloses no offence.
Grave offences — defence under BNS Sections 103 and 104, murder and culpable homicide not amounting to murder, where the stakes and rigour are highest.

Each has its own procedural depth, covered on its dedicated page. This page is the overview that sits above all of them.

The Courts This Practice Appears In

Criminal jurisdiction in Maharashtra is layered, and which court a matter belongs in is fixed by the offence and stage, not by preference.

Magistrate Court (JMFC) — the trial court for most criminal matters, and the first stage of virtually every case regardless of eventual severity, since remand, initial bail, and framing of charge often begin here.

Sessions Court, Pune — the trial court for graver offences, including those under BNS Sections 103 and 104, and the primary forum for regular and anticipatory bail in non-bailable offences. Most bail applications are expected here before the High Court will entertain them, except where the Sessions Court has already refused, or a special statute's thresholds warrant direct High Court intervention.

Bombay High Court — the forum for matters the Sessions Court cannot finally resolve: quashing petitions under Section 528 BNSS, bail under special statutes like NDPS with enhanced thresholds, revision applications, and criminal appeals. Its inherent jurisdiction also makes it the forum of last resort where a proceeding is an abuse of process rather than a genuine prosecution.

Approaching the wrong forum, or the High Court prematurely, is one of the most common and costly procedural mistakes in criminal litigation — matching the matter to the right court, at the right stage, starts at the first consultation.

How a Criminal Case Actually Moves

At a high level, most criminal matters move through the same sequence, whatever the offence:

FIR / complaint. The case begins with an FIR registered by police, or in some matters a private complaint before a Magistrate. What the FIR does and does not say sets the frame for everything that follows.
Investigation. Police record statements, collect evidence, and may seek custody for interrogation — the stage at which anticipatory bail (pre-arrest) or regular bail (post-arrest) typically becomes relevant.
Chargesheet. Investigation concludes with a chargesheet, or a closure report if police find no case. If it is not filed within the statutory period, default bail becomes available as a matter of right.
Framing of charge and trial. The court examines the material and either discharges the accused or frames charges. Trial follows: prosecution evidence, cross-examination, the accused's statement, and defence evidence, culminating in judgment.
Appeal and revision. A conviction is not the end of the road. Appeals against Sessions Court judgments lie to the Bombay High Court, and revisional jurisdiction is available against orders legally infirm short of a full appeal.

This is a high-level map, not a procedural manual — the mechanics of each stage (default bail timelines, discharge standards, the contours of a quashing petition) are covered on the dedicated pages for those matters.

What Genuinely Engaged Defence Looks Like

A criminal case is decided as much by preparation as by advocacy:

Reading the FIR and chargesheet line by line — not just for what is alleged but for what is missing: gaps in the timeline, inconsistent statements, sections invoked without matching facts.
Matching strategy to forum and stage. The right move at the FIR stage differs from the right move after chargesheet, and again on appeal. A one-size-fits-all approach loses cases a stage-specific one would win.
Being reachable when the timeline is not. Arrests and urgent bail applications do not wait for business hours.
Being honest about the strength of a matter. Not every case has a clean quashing argument, and a client is better served by an accurate read of the file than by reassurance that does not survive contact with the court.