Can summon accused even after clean chit

TOP COURT ON TRIAL COURT'S POWER

- Utkarsh Anand

NEW DELHI: A clean chit or closure report filed by the police cannot circumscribe the trial court's power to summon individuals as accused, the Supreme Court has held, reinforcing the vital role of courts in safeguarding justice by independently assessing evidence presented during criminal trials.

"The trial court has undoubted jurisdiction to add any person not being the accused before it to face the trial along with other accused persons, if the court is satisfied at any stage of the proceedings on the evidence adduced that the persons who have not been arrayed as accused should face the trial," held a bench of justices JB Pardiwala and R Mahadevan.

The January 3 judgment, released on Monday, reaffirmed the expansive powers of trial courts under Section 319 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) to summon individuals as accused, even if they were exonerated during the police investigation. Section 319 of CrPC allows trial courts to summon individuals who were either dropped during the investigation or were not initially named as accused but whose role emerges from evidence during the trial.