INVESTIGATION TO TRIAL

I. Cognizable offence – State’s case

 Section 154 – complaint is given to police and FIR is registered.
 Ss. 161 and 1664 – recording of evidence
 S. 173 – charge sheet/ B report is submitted on completion of investigation before court of
metropolitan magistrate who has jurisdiction. (Even if a murder case triable by summons court,
charge sheet will be filed first at the magistrate, who is the only one who can take cognizance.
Once he takes cognizance, summon/warrant will happen and then s. 207 will come. Once
procedure under s. 207 is finished, the case is then committed to court of sessions which has
jurisdiction to try the case.)
 Based on this B report, the magistrate can do either 1 of the 3 available options he has:
(i) If the police has asked for closure of case, he can do that
(ii) If the magistrate feels there can be more investigation, he can ask police to investigate
more
(iii) If he is of the opinion that B report has sufficient facts and evidences which gives out a
cause to take cognizance of the offence, he will take cognizance.
 S. 190 – magistrate can take cognizance in 3 types of cases –
(i) Private complaint (even a protest petition, i.e. protesting the closure report, can be taken
as private complaint and the procedure of private complaint can be taken up)
(ii) Police report of such act being taken place (the common one. Includes report of CBI, SIT,
etc.)
(iii) When received information from somebody else other than police station, or upon his
own knowledge (can include TV news, some random person who is not related to case
giving facts to the magistrate in anonymous manner, etc.)
 S. 204 – accused is summoned/ warrant is issued, based on the type of case.
 S. 207- This is the state where accused makes appearance after which accuses asks for
documents annexed to B report and B report itself, i.e. all documents relied by prosecution. S.
207 is of great importance.
o NOTE: In India, discretion is given to the prosecuting agency (there is a difference
between the prosecutors and the prosecution agency, i.e., the police or CBI, etc. The
prosecutor and his office come into picture only after charge sheet has been
submitted) to decide what materials they want to rely on, what they don’t want to
rely on. Only the materials they rely on, will be annexed in the chargesheet which
will be produced in the court. So, if the prosecuting agency is of the opinion that
certain material will create a doubt regarding the commission of offence by the
accused, they have the discretion to not place it before the court. Then, during the
defence, the defence has the power to bring this up (which many lawyers have come
up with strategies to get this out). This rule that prosecution has unquestionable
right to decide what materials and witnesses they want to deal with, has been laid
down by the supreme court too. Even section 173(6) says that police can seek from
magistrate to strike such materials off and not hand it over to the defence u/s/ 207.

After documents are given to the accused, trial proceeds based on what kind of offence it is and who
can try it – sessions trail, summons trail, warrant trail, etc.
In case of a sessions trail (for e.g. murder)

 Once magistrate commits the case to the sessions court, the sessions judge starts the sessions
trial.
 Sessions triable cases: s. 225-233
 Prosecutor opens the case (225 and 226). Judge can discharge the accused if no case (227). If a
person decides to plead guilty, he will be convicted. If not pleads guilty, prosecution’s evidence is
recorded (i.e. examination, cross examination and reexamination). After this, statement under
section 313 CrPC comes in. Here, each and every circumstance against accused is placed in
question answer form and accused is asked to answer. Here, accused gets first opportunity to put
forward his defence. After 313 is over, either there can be acquittal, if not, accused can produce
defence. After this court will give verdict of guilty or not.

THE OTHER TRIALS ARE EXCLUSIVELY BY MAGISTRATE

(i) Warrant case procedure

This is further devided into 2: instituted by police report (ii) those instituted in other ways.

(ii) Summons case procedure

All this depends on the punishment which is for the cases.

(Procedure is similar in trial and CrPC provides separately for each of them)

II. Complaint case procedure (private complaint)

 You file a complaint. It must disclose facts and circumstance which can lead to a case. (complaint
must be annexed list of witnesses and documents).
o NOTE - Alternatively: there might be a situation where I will need help of police to
investigate. So when I complain, I will put this fact before court (I have no access to
information, etc), I’ll ask for police investigation. u/s. 156(3) magistrate has power to
order police investigation on a complaint received by complainant on the ground
that gravity of offence requires an investigation and his inability to unravel the crime
is limited. This is ordered at the pre cognizance stage.once this is done, the whole
state procedure will taken place (FIR, charge sheet) and once charge sheet is filed,
magistrate will take cognizance under 191(1)(b) as the private case is now merged
with B report.
 S. 191(1)(a) cognizance is taken
 S. 200 – statement of complainant and his witnesses is recorded. Documents are also proved
through testimony.
 S. 203 – magistrate on examining the complaint and witnesses, can come to conclusion that no
case is made out and can dismiss the case.
 S. 204 – if magistrate feels there is a case, he can summon/issue warrant.
 S. 207 – providing accused with all documents.
 III. Non cognizable offence
 155(1) and 155(2) read with 156(3) even in non-cognizable offence, magistrate has power to
order registration of FIR even in private complaint as 155(2) and 156(3) allows him to.

Section 167 of CrPC

 If a person is arrested today, police is obligated to produce accused in 24 hrs. In addition to

this, section 57 CrPC also says that investigation has to be completed within 24 hrs, which is
not generally done.
 So section 167 provides for extensions through a process called remand.
 Example:
o So, if X is arrested. Investigation is not completed within 24 hrs. so police produces X
before magistrate. Police will an application seeking police custody remand or
judicial custody remand. If they want to interrogate X, they will ask for police
remand.
o The magistrate will continue to remand for a maximum period of 15 days.
o If offence is punishable with, imprisonment for life or upto 10 days, the remand will
continue till maximum 90 days (with order of magistrate).
o If offence is of any other punishment, remand can eb for maximum 60 days.
o After either 90/60 days, accused will have to be let go off, and if investigation is also
not completed, then consequences will have to be faced.
o If accused has gotten the bail, this time period is not affected.
 IMPORTANT: the first 15 days remand is of critical importance. It is only for the first 15 days,
police can ask for police demand. After 15 days, it is compulsory judicial remand.

SUMMARY

In short, the structure of journey from investigation to trail, irrespective of who tries it, there are
stages of taking cognizance (by court), stages of committal, stages where prosecution opens case
and accused argues against it.

Even in all this, whether the offence is cognizable or not is not material. It is only material for police
to start investigation. After that, it just depends of these stages.

COGNIZANCE TO FRAMING OF CHARGES

 Cognizance is mentioned in section 190 of CrPC.

 It is chapter 14 of CrPC which reads as conditions requisite for initiation of proceedings.
 So, cognizance is not the starting point of starting a trial. What happens after taking
cognizance are proceedings which are necessary to initiate the trial. So, they are in the
nature of enquiry and not in trial proceedings.
  Definition of cognizance: S.K. Sinha v. Videocon intl. ltd. (2008), SC stated “cognizance is of
indefinite importance. It merely means – become aware of or take notice of an offence with
a view to initiate proceedings in respect of such offence said to have been committed by
someone.

Section 190: lays out different kinds of cognizance a magistrate can take

 Section 190(1)(a): Magisterial cognizance upon complaint. Here, under section 200,
magistrate must ensure that complainant’s evidence, his witnesses’ evidence is recorded.
Then as per sec. 203 he can dismiss the complaint or summon the accused under section
204.Even within this, once an accused is summoned. (a) One is summons case procedure (s.
251) relates to a case where offence is punishable upto 2 years (NI act case). (b) Then there
is warrant case procedure which has 2 parts (chapter 19) –
(i) warrant case from police report: accused is summon under s. 204. Sfter this,
procedure from s. 239 onwards is followed. There is no resummoning evidence.
Directly you go to charge.
(ii) warrant case other than police report, i.e., complaint (s. 244 onwards) – s.244 says
evidence has to be recorded prior to setting charges. Of after considering evidence
and complaint magistrate feels case is not fit, he may discharge the accused. If he
feels it is a fit case, under s. 246 he can frame charges.
 190(1)(b): cognizance taken by police report or charge sheet. Directly we go to section 204.
Depending upon whether it is a summons case, warrants case, etc. the respective procedure
is followed. When it is warrants, case initiated by police report, then procedure is s. 239
onwards.
o Further, if offence is specifically triable only by sessions court, then magistrate must
necessarily commit case to court of sessions, and then procedure laid down in sec.
235 onwards will commence. For instance, in murder, accused is summoned under
204, s. 207 is followed where accused gets all documents and case is committed
under s. 209. Here the accused has nly appeared till now before magistrate. Now the
accused and docs has to be committed to court of sessions. (CONTINUE FROM HERE)
 So, Procedure for 190(1)(a) and 190(1)(b) is different.
 SUMMING UP: So, what needs to be kept in mind is (A) is it a private complaint case or
police report case; (B) within a private complaint, is it a summons case triable procedure or
warrant case procedure – if it is summons case, straight to 251. If warrant case, need pre
charge evidence; (C) If it is a police report, again, is it a summons case procedure or warrant
case; (C) is the case exclusively triable by sessions court.

(CONTINUE FROM 34 mins)