1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION CRIMINAL APPLICATION NO. 661 OF 2008 IN CRIMINAL APPEAL NO. 1229 OF 2005 Ramesh Gopinath Mundhe .....Applicant Versus The State of Maharashtra (at the instance of Roha Police Stn.) ......Respondent Ms.S.D.Khot, adv. For applicant/appellant. Mr.S.R.Borulkar with Mrs.P.H. Kantharia, Public Prosecutor present. Coram : Smt. Ranjana Desai, & Smt.R.P.SondurBaldota, JJ. Dated: 15 th July, 2008. P.C. : 1. The applicant is original appellant no.11 in Criminal Appeal No.1228 of 2005. He was charged alongwith other co-accused for offences punishable under Section 147, 148, 302 read with Section 37(1) (3) and Section 135 of the Bombay Police Act and was convicted for the said offences by the Learned Additional Session Judge, Raigad, Alibaug in 2 Session Case No.79 of 2004 vide judgment and order dated 27th October, 2005. In the instant appeal which is admitted, the said judgment and order is challenged. 2. In the present application, the applicant seeks separation of his appeal from the instant appeal as he wants to engage another advocate of his choice to represent him as per Part-III, Chapter-XXXII, Rule-2 Bombay High Court, Appellate Side Rules, 1960. 3. We have heard Ms.Khot learned counsel appearing for applicant and Mr.Borulkar, learned Public Prosecutor. Our attention has been drawn to the judgment of division bench of this court in Bhaskar Pandit Kadam Vs. The State of Maharashtra 86 Bom.L.R. 467, where such a course was permitted. We may quote the relevant paragraph of the said judgment : “. Whenever there is one appeal irrespective of the number of the appellants, only one advocate can appear in support of the appeal. Two advocates cannot appear for two different appellants in the same appeal. However, if one of the appellants wants to engage a different advocate in an appeal which has already been filed or admitted, an application for separating the appeal of that person must necessarily be made. On that application a separate appeal be registered by the office. Then there would be two appeals which can be supported by two different advocates 3 appearing.” 4. Reference may also be made to another judgment of this court in Laxmidas N. Madhvani Vs. Madhvani Private Ltd. 88 BLR 308. In view of the above, in our opinion the present application can be granted. Hence the following order : 5. The application is allowed in terms of prayer clause (a). The applicant shall take necessary steps within a period of four weeks from today in the light of above judgments. Application is disposed off. (Smt.R.P.SondurBaldota, J) (Smt.Ranjana Desai, J)